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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Extreme Reversionist Report 2011! - Part 3 - Rick Perry

Alrighty, let's stomp some more points into the ground... First, let me re-cap on what this post is about..

From my first "Extreme Reversionist Report 2011" post

"This post is one of a series that I plan to post over the next week or so. The purpose of these posts is to pick at the social conservatism of several American politicians who are each campaigning for the endorsement of the Republican party for the 2012 Presidential election. For this, I offer no fucking apology whatsoever.

The candidates that I have chosen for this tarring and feathering are throwing their political weight behind ideas and policies that endanger the rights and lives of many, many people in this country. Their "talking points" promote radical theories that are ignorant, shortsighted, and diminish the personhood of many American citizens. You don't have to be gay to know that you want a good life for your brother who is. You don't have to be a woman to want proper health care and reproductive options for your daughter. You don't have to be (insert any religion other than Christianity/Catholicism) to agree that if you don't want your own faith to determine how the state treats YOU, that it wouldn't be appropriate for anyone else to be treated that way"


That said, let us move onto the NEXT Texas Good Ol' Boy that thinks his accent and his propensity for becoming befuddled when asked a direct question may be JUST charming enough to get him the Republican endorsement.

If you've read this blog for a few minutes, or paid even the slightest attention to the HUGE collection of keywords to the left of this post, you've probably figured out that I am a strong supporter of American citizens' access to sex education and birth control. Typically, conservatives vote for abstinence-only sex education programs, which have been proven again and again to be ineffectual in preventing teen pregnancy or circumventing disease. The idea of the abstinence-only programs were to affirm that sexual abstinence before marriage was the only acceptable standard of behavior for young people in America. Sounds like a freakin' fairy tale, doesn't it?  Rick Perry doesn't think so. His strict abstinence-only sex-ed policies in Texas  high schools resulted in MORE teens having sex and more births to teenage mothers in as little as a year.

From a Huffington Post article by Shawn Lawrence Otto:

"Instead of providing fact-based information, the programs use fear and Jesus -- over-emphasizing the risks of sexually transmitted diseases leading to cervical cancer, radical hysterectomy and death, together with Christian morality.

One Texas public school district's sex ed handout is entitled "Things to Look for in a Mate:"
I. How they relate to God
A. Is Jesus their first love?
B. Trying to impress people or serve God?


Another public school district uses this:

Question: "What does the Bible say about sex before marriage/premarital sex?"

Answer: Along with all other kinds of sexual immorality, sex before marriage/premarital sex is repeatedly condemned in Scripture (Acts 15:20; Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13,18; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 7).

The results? Teen pregnancy in Texas went up -- higher than before "abstinence only," and more than 50 percent higher than the national average. Even more troubling was that repeat teen pregnancy went up -- to the point that it, too, led the nation. It turns out that Texas kids thought that "if birth control doesn't work, why use it?"

It's also extremely tough for teenagers to get contraceptives in Texas. "If you are a kid, even in college, if it's state-funded you have to have parental consent," said Susan Tortolero, director of the Prevention Research Center at the University of Texas in Houston."

What the holy hell, man? Abstinence-only programs are as effective at deterring hormonally-charged, horny teens from sex about as well as most anti-drug commercials deter people from smoking pot. The point made by Otto is quite valid in that if people are taught that birth control doesn't work, there's no reason to use it. Additionally, these abstinence-only programs are well known to use misleading curriculum to scare young people away from sexual activity, as well as outright lies that could incite hateful attitudes toward students who are NOT Christian or adherent to Christian lifestyles. Some of the misinformation that ab-only programs are known to teach are as follows...

Educational fictionalizations that are racist in nature

The Holy Bible cited as a "medical reference"

Abstinence-only education ignores lesbians, gays, bisexual, and transgendered people

Same-sex behavior is only discussed in the context of disease and promiscuity

Half of all gay male teenagers test positive for HIV

Pregnancy can result from touching another persons genitals

If you don't believe me on the last one, try reading this desperate question from Yahoo Answers.  This kid knew enough about sex to know she'd had some variety of it, but too little to determine her actual risk factor.

Yeah, That's really fucking healthy, right there. Are we really wondering why kids are suffering from anxiety problems at that age?

Rick Perry's answer? Well, he doesn't really have one other than "abstinence works". This is his roundabout way of saying it when confronted with the fact that teen pregnancies had actually INCREASED in Texas with the implementation of these programs.



From AdvocatesForYouth.org:

"On one side are those that support comprehensive sex education—education that promotes abstinence but includes information about contraception and condoms to build young people's knowledge, attitudes and skills for when they do become sexually active. On the other side are those that favor abstinence-only-until-marriage—programs that promote "abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage as the expected standard of behavior. Proponents of abstinence-only programs believe that providing information about the health benefits of condoms or contraception contradicts their message of abstinence-only and undermines its impact. As such, abstinence-only programs provide no information about contraception beyond failure rates.
....
..Abstinence-only programs show little evidence of sustained (long-term) impact on attitudes and intentions. Worse, they show some negative impacts on youth's willingness to use contraception, including condoms, to prevent negative sexual health outcomes related to sexual intercourse. Importantly, only in one state did any program demonstrate short-term success in delaying the initiation of sex; none of these programs demonstrates evidence of long-term success in delaying sexual initiation among youth exposed to the programs or any evidence of success in reducing other sexual risk-taking behaviors among participants."

Not to be facetious, but here's a little clue about what happens with poor sex education...


I'm really not trying to beat anyone's head into the ground with this issue, but it's extremely important. Misinformation about a natural biological function that bears as many potential ramifications as sex does, is dangerous, ignorant, and I truly believe this misinformation is a major cause of so much fear and hatred in our society.

Right now, none of the major contenders for the 2012 republican candidacy are talking about this subject at all. To support abstinence-only education would leave them open to a full-assault on its ineffectiveness, to condemn it would risk their base of conservative voters. I'll leave it to you to decide.. do you really think that any of the GOP nutcases would agree to fund comprehensive sex education should they win the presidential election?

It's a pretty safe bet that they won't, actually. It would increase the awareness level of a whole generation of young, future voters, and they can't have that. They wouldn't be as easy to manipulate anymore through fear or guilt.

The only thing that I can say that's remotely positive about Rick Perry and sexual health is that I do agree with his Texas mandate regarding HPV vaccinations, which he's now trying to downplay as much as humanly possible.  He's AT LEAST one of the few GOP candidates that believes in abortion rights for incest/rape victims and in the case of maternal health risk, but that sad part is that almost all the rest of them seem to want to eliminate abortion rights completely. By comparison, Perry comes across as almost human.

Oh wait. Perry thinks that homeless people are homeless by choice...

"When Los Angeles passed an ordinance prohibiting people from camping out on city streets and sidewalks throughout the day, the ACLU sued; the ordinance was ruled unconstitutional. Recognizing that some people suddenly find themselves homeless because of tragic, unanticipated circumstances, I would not say that all homeless people are voluntarily in their predicament. Many homeless have chosen their lifestyle--not as a conscious lifestyle choice made in prior years of sobriety but through a series of decisions that not only led to their homelessness, but also perpetuate it. They choose to drink, they choose to get high, they choose to engage in a life or crime, and often they choose to do it all on the streets instead of in shelters where there is strict enforcement of prohibitions on such behavior. The homeless need help. But the help they need is to make some of their behavior more difficult to engage in. If you take a hard approach to blight, then you create a disincentive for continuing blight "


Source: On My Honor, by Gov. Rick Perry, p.127-128 Feb 12, 2008
 

I'm sure the (more than) 15% of Americans living in poverty are really going to appreciate that sentiment. Especially when you compare the civil rights movement to the Republican struggle for lower corporate taxes..
Yeah, seriously. Check this out..



Now that's a guy who cares about the plight of Americans!

Perry likes to brag about all the jobs that have been created in Texas under his administration, but what he carefully avoids mentioning is that nearly all of those jobs pay minimum wage. Perry's job creation "accomplishments" have been called "one stage away from slavery", because although the people of Texas may be working, they are largely working for minimum wage with no medical benefits. The national average of Americans living in poverty is 15.1%, whereas in Texas that average stands at 18.4%. I suppose when someone breaks a limb, that's some sort of subconscious choice to be homeless, according to Perry's views on these matters.

"I'm Governor Rick Perry. And I'm proud to be here today with the Tea Party Express. And I simply want to get America working again and make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can. "

Source: 2011 GOP Tea Party debate in Tampa FL Sep 12, 2011
 
 

Shit. Maybe it IS time for "class warfare".. Rather, maybe it's time for the subjugated class to actually fight BACK.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

State Tax Systems Burden The Poor, While Rich Get Off Easy - HuffingtonPost Article

"Contrary to the rhetoric from Republicans that half of Americans are not paying income taxes, at the state level the poor are paying more than twice as much of their income toward taxes than the super rich. At the same time poverty levels haven risen to highs not seen since 1993, with 15.1 percent of Americans officially classified as poor.

But those in the bottom 20 percent pay closer to 12 or 13 percent of their income in state and local taxes on average. The top 1 percent of income earners only pay 7 to 8 percent, according to the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy." - Tyler Kingkade, Huffington Post


Go HERE to see this story on HuffingtonPost.com

In case you haven't heard of her.. Jenna Marbles, everyone!

Jenna Marbles, sharing some thoughts that I happen to agree with, put in a way that only Jenna Marbles can..

Jenna details her view of what I often call the Barbie/Ken Complex.



'Don't sit around and fucking complain to the rest of us (girls) how no one wants to buy you fucking shoes and clothes, and give you a free ride for life because you have tits and a vagina, unless you want to be TREATED like a PAIR OF TITS AND A VAGINA" - Jenna Marbles.

Please see her YouTube Channel, and Her Blog.

you can also follow her on Twitter. I know I do, cause the bitch is crazy and I love her.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Since you asked.. Men and Dating.

Apparently, sometimes it takes a goddamn backhoe to level the playing field.

Here are some things to avoid when talking to women, whether in person, email, chat, or text, that we women assume you'll avoid if you really want to talk to us. Never make an assumptions, I guess.

- Don't Blow Your Wad -

By that, I mean don't spend more than you can afford on a fun night out. What the hell did you THINK I meant? Flashing your money around makes a woman feel like you're trying to "buy" her, and it makes you come across as either arrogant or highly insecure, even in non-dating situations. I'm sure this comes as a surprise to some men.. those "some" men being the type that see us women as ravenous, wallet-devouring beasts. It's okay. Some of us are. It's not any sort of way to be, but women can be this way for a variety of reasons, all of which should indicate to you that she's got problems and is not someone you should date. Some of these reasons are as follows:

- She's got a bad history of being taken advantage of, and she's hell-bent on not letting it happen again.

- She's got a bad history of being taken advantage of, and she's exacting revenge.

- She is immature and not a good candidate yet for an adult relationship

- She is irresponsible and inconsiderate

- She relies on single friends and the Lifetime/Oxygen network for dating advice. Prolonged watching of either of them will leave her with a rough expectation that all men are either rapists/cheaters/beaters and you should put them through hoops to ward off any man who isn't a shoe-buying, oblivious, opinionless drone. Extra points if you dump the drone for a bad boy and make the drone go through hell to get you back. That always makes for good drama.

- She's a Barbie looking for her Ken. She's high-maintenance, passive-aggressive, pretends to put you in control, but let's face it.. the Dream House and the Convertible is always packaged with WHOSE name on the box?

If you're still convinced that this is ALL women, and you base this on your own dating experience, it might behoove you to examine any similarities between the women you've dated. You're probably seeking a woman like this out, and then getting mad about it later. Next time you have an instinct about some girl being perfect for you, try to find a woman who is her exact opposite. You'll probably be happier in the long run, and you might actually have a relationship MAKE IT to the "long run". Some of the "emotional baggage" reasons that I gave are usually temporary conditions, so if you see something special in a woman who seems to suffer from one of the first three issues I described, she might very well be over that phase in a few months. Give it a try again later. She might feel better and be less inclined to make you a part of her rebound process if you wait.

If you ARE trying to impress a woman, you'll do a lot better by taking her on a "low pressure" date, that you can spiff up without breaking your bank. Mainly, take her somewhere that's clean and well-lit. Don't OVERLOAD the date if you can't really afford it. Stick with dinner and maybe drinks, instead of dinner and a movie and somewhere with a big-ass cover charge. It's about QUALITY, not quantity. You're trying to warm her up, not blow off her freakin' eyebrows.

- Don't Be A Cheap Bastard, Be a Clever Bastard -

This MIGHT sound like a direct contradiction to the previous point, but it's not. I said "don't spend more than you can afford". There's a big and obvious difference between draining your bank account to party like a rockstar for ONE date, and expecting a woman to enjoy a first dinner date consisting of items off the dollar menu at McDonalds.

If you don't have a lot of money, then you need to slow your roll. If you're too impatient to try and arrange some casual non-date meetups for beverages of some variety or another (coffee, cocktails, whatever), then you're not going to get to know the woman well enough to determine if you DO want to spend the money on a nice dinner or event. If you barely know a woman and manage to talk her into a date, every thing you do on that date is going to be making a major impression because of the importance placed on the event. It's now a "date", rather than a "hey, I'm going to be over at _______ on Thursday night because I like the band that's playing. Maybe I'll see you?"

There are lots of things out there to do that don't cost an arm and a leg, and a woman who wants to be with you would be happy to go do them with you. I don't play golf, but I was overjoyed to go play (TERRIBLY, I might add) with a man I liked a lot who asked me to go with him. It's what he did with his time, and I was really happy that he wanted me to be part of that. We went to a really cheap little public course and had a blast. Now, bear in mind.. it was ME, so I acted like I was going to run him down with the cart a few times and made him let me drive it. Still, both of us had a good time. We met out places where there was live music, we got to know each others' friends and had fun hanging out as a group. We stopped dating because he and I just didn't click, but at least we had fun going places together. He took me out to some very nice places too, but I didn't expect him to just pony up the dough right offhand to "impress" me. Oh, and we did have pretty good sex.

I know that's what some of you are wondering. If it "went anywhere", and yes.. OH yes, it did.

-  You Asked Her Out, You'd BETTER Have A Plan -

If you ask a woman to go on a date, how in the HELL do you not know what you're going to go do on that date? Inex-fucking-cuseable. When you meet up for that date and you say "I dunno, what do you want to do?", you've made it abundantly clear that you're not interested enough in her to come up with an plan. If you haven't come up with a single idea, that tells her that while she was excitedly anticipating this date, you just woke up and realized it was Friday and time to go somewhere. A man without a plan is really unappealing, and it also makes the woman feel like she's made herself to accessible to you before she's even had the chance to get to know you.

If you ever want to get laid, you will have well-laid plans. This includes having a back-up plan in case your original plan gets rained out/sold out/otherwise cancelled.

- You Got 99 Problems But A Bitch Ain't One -

I really can't believe that this even has to be discussed, but you guys keep shooting yourself in the foot with this one SO often that it's worth mentioning.

Don't talk about dating. Don't talk about how you date, and why all your other dates have failed, and most of all don't tell a woman that you have a method of dealing with women, in general. A woman has a pretty solid method of dealing with a man who says shit like that, and that is to boot his ass as hard as she can into her "Never Again! PS: Tell girlfriends about THIS douchebag" pile of would-be suitors.

I'll put it to you this way... we all know that during the course of anyone's life, there will be numerous relationships, heartache, and the accumulation of baggage. No one's perfect, but some people handle these life events better than others, and thus, some people are a bit more stable. Unstable people make everyone nervous. If you were to end up at the Post Office and the person waiting on you looked twitchy and detached, you'd probably get the hell out of there before the shotgun came from behind the counter, fully expecting it to, in fact, BE behind the counter for just the time that Mr. Overburdened Postman finally handled one too many sacks of mail and flipped the fuck out.

That's kind of what you look like when you talk about all the bad shit that women have heaped upon you in your life. Any woman sober enough to pay attention is going to get the FUCK away from you before she inadvertently becomes that one mail-sack too many. By indicating this much pent-up anger and hurt over all the ills caused you by women in the world, it also makes the woman feel like you're laying "traps" so that you can blame her too, for whatever accidental or imagined slight you're undoubtedly going to accuse her of.

If you're trying to get close to a woman, she's going to be a lot more receptive if you let her know that you respect her individuality. Shit, man.. LIE if you have to. Start lumping everyone with ovaries into one group and talk about them like they're an illogical, predatory, different species, and you're going to offend the ovary-bearing individual in front of you. You're going to make her nervous, or even afraid of that obvious hostility you have toward (what seems to her) every woman you can think to talk about. Phrases that sound anything like these will knock you out of the running for any woman who might actually be worth your time:

"See, the trick to dealing with women is.."
"I don't let women do _______"
"Oh, you wouldn't believe how awful my last four dates were.."
"Women are ____ because they don't understand.."
"My dating strategy is..."
"My ex was a real piece of work.."
"I hate my (really, insert anything here, It doesn't matter. You're already Debbie Downer, so go nuts)"

Really? You want to let someone you're interested in know that you've been so unsuccessful at this that you've had the time to develop a "strategy"?

- Don't Be a Bully -

So, picture this. You go out to dinner with a woman you're really into, and the waiter just can't seem to get his shit straight. The guy messes up your drink orders, brings stuff late and cold, and forgets to come back to the table at regular intervals. One of the first reactions you might have would be to make an issue of it. After all, you're trying to impress this girl, so why not take this opportunity to stand up for her? STAND UP FOR HER AND THOSE CURLY FRIES THAT CAME OUT COLD, DAMMIT!

You're better off to remain calm and act like it's no big deal. Make sure you do what you can to get your order straight, politely and discreetly talk to the manager if you must, but DON'T give her any indication that you're agitated. Women take a bad service situation as an opportunity to see how you treat people when conflict arises, and it's a big deal. Being rude or aggressive to someone who's serving you is going to make you look like an asshole, and assholes don't get another date. The woman who thinks that this kind of behavior is "charming" and takes your macho act as chivalry, is also trying to figure out how much disposeable income you have to spend on her.

PS: If you're covering the check and doing so politely and discreetly, you don't have to tip that piece of shit waiter. Just don't make a big freakin' deal about either covering the check or tipping him, and she'll never know. If you're covering the check and you pretend to go into cardiac arrest when you look at the bill, it doesn't count. You might as well have gone dutch and saved yourself some money.

- Don't Criticize -

The really great thing about dating is that you're only committed for that one date, that one time, unless you ask the woman out for another one. If you've got even constructive criticism for the woman you're dating, then you can place your concern in one of two categories:

Not really important

and

Deal-breaker

Neither of these concerns are worth bringing up on a date. It's a "date" not an intervention. Either let it go or don't go out with her anymore. Anything in between is really none of your fucking business unless you're thinking about marrying her.