LOL of the Day: Paulites

I came upon this brilliant post by Ashley F. Miller via Clarissa’s weekly blogaround, a summation of reasons to dislike Ron Paul.

Better, though, were the cohorts of Paul that flocked to Miller’s post to defend Paul and debase her. Anyone else notice that Paulites always use the same strategies to defend Paul? Every time. The same. Perhaps I’ll write a separate post about that in the future.

But what amused me most of all about the commenters were these responses here, to Ashley asserting that most of Paul’s defenders came from a Ron Paul fan site.

How does she know? they wonder. She must be making it up, they say. Incredulity, all around. Not to mention quick jumps to accusations of lying and conspiracies.

Really, have none of these trolls ever heard of statistics pages that most major blogging hosts have nowadays? It’s true. Not only can you see how many people are viewing specific posts and pages, but you can also see where these viewers came from, and gasp! What links they clicked on!

Such a little thing to pick out, but it amused me nonetheless. Ah, Ron Paul fans. Please, keep it up–it’s Monday, I could use some entertainment.

What I’m Reading: Bloggers on the Bus

My uncle gave this to me a while back, and I started reading it about 30 minutes ago.

Can I just say how cool it is to be reading about bloggers and our effect on politics in a book?

Fun Stuff: New Toy!

Over the weekend, I got a new phone. This is the first time that I’ve gone shopping explicitly for one that will enable me to blog easily-and so far I’m pretty pleased. This is my first post from my new phone-an Android myTouch.

It’s definitely different from my old Blackberry, that’s for sure. What say you? Do you blog from your phone? What do you use?

Weinergate? Please.

If you want to know why Breitbart and his cronies set their sights on Congressman Anthony Weiner, check out this excellent piece by Allan at Angry Black Lady Chronicles.

Seriously, click it.

If you need another reason to discredit the Congressman’s detractors (other than the victim’s statement saying she doesn’t believe for a minute Weiner sent her the photo, Weiner’s denials, the demonstrations of the ease of hacking Yfrog, the mismatch between “the photo” and other photos the Congressman has uploaded, the fact that the only person who saw the tweet was harassing both Weiner and Cordova, et cetera and so on.) this piece is the golden nail in the coffin.

 

 

Take Heart.

In the wake of Rand Paul’s election, and the resulting gloating of conservatives, I discovered Tim Wise’s essay, An Open Letter to the White Right, On the Occasion of Your Recent, Successful Temper Tantrum. And it is beautiful.

Despite the numbers–that the Tea Party wasn’t as successful as they were predicting, that, as Tim points out, the birthrate points to racial minorities becoming the majority in a generation, and every other indicator that Americans just aren’t interested in Tea Party America, they just won’t shut up.

Reading this piece gives me heart, especially after so many bloggers and pundits repeating the assertion that Democrats are hopelessly spineless, that a progressive agenda will never come to fruition, and so on. We’ve lost before. We’ll lose again. But in the end, justice, equality, and freedom will come out on top. Americans are legendarily bull-headed, progressives as much as conservatives. Might doesn’t make Right. Right makes Might.

We survived Bush. I’ve no doubt we survive the cowardly Rand Paul. As we get another taste of the bitterness that was forced down our throats during the Bush years, we’ll regroup with a stronger resolve to end discrimination against our LGBT brethren, to end the enduring discrimination against women and racial minorities, and to repair the damage done in the Bush years.

I’m reminded as I struggle with personal loss and to make my own living in a world of economic struggle, not to lose sight of the larger picture. And I’m thankful for a fantastic support network of family and friends (liberal and conservative alike) that allows me to do so. Without them, I wouldn’t have the privilege of writing. And it is a privilege–the recent events spurred my absence served as a cold, hard reminder of that. The world is cold and hard–but I will struggle to be a warm, bleeding heart in the midst of it.

Milestone!

I just posted my 50th post today. Time to celebrate!

I never imagined when I started this blog that I would also soon have a profile on BlogHer, and create Twitter and YouTube accounts just for my blog.

It’s also amazing the things I’ve learned and the awesome websites I’ve found because of my blogging. Without this blog, I wouldn’t have discovered HerCircleEzine, and would never be interning there. Without this blog, I would have found My Fault, I’m Female, and I wouldn’t be moderating there. (And my family thinks I’m just wasting time on the internets!)

As part of this celebration, I’ll post the weirdest search term anyone has used that led them to my blog. Are you ready?

“free indian sex women with little boy”

Yeah…

I’ve gaped, gawked, been slightly horrified. But I’ve resisted my trainwreck syndrome, and I have not Google’d it. Because, I mean, well…look at it. If you showed me this phrase and bet me it would take you to a feminist blog, I would take that bet. So, yeah. You should be proud of me. I have a bad case of Trainwreck syndrome.

Also! To date, my Fear Assumptions, Not Monsters, parts one,  two, and three, as well as my update on domestic partnership benefits at Western Kentucky University are by far my most popular posts. I’m glad to see that!

I hope to see more lurkers coming out of the woodwork in the near future! I’m grateful for you reading, but I’d like to know what you think!

Have a great [time of day]!

- Brittany-Ann

I Finally Did It!

I’d been toying with the idea of making a YouTube account for this blog, and today, I finally did it. I made an introduction video today! (And I share where my name came from!) It took a bit of trial and error, but I made the video, and added a transcript. If there are any problems with the transcript let me know–it took me a couple of tries to get it right.

Without further ado:

Renee, You Go Girl!

Blogging is hard. Serious, thoughtful blogging can be taxing. You do as much research as for an academic paper, but get little validation, no credit, and often, harassed for your trouble. What Renee of Womanist Musings is dealing with right now is a prime example.

And it’s bullshit.

She’s a good, devoted writer. Researching and writing posts for the world to read, and for the community to discuss, and doing it regularly is a feat. She deserves credit for that. Renee also deserves credit for being a good writer–giving thoughtful posts, some serious, some passionate, and some lighthearted.

ONTD members should be ashamed of their behavior, and of their harassment. If they want to behave childishly, they should keep to mocking one another’s icons (and spelling) in the traditional ONTD LJ way, on their own forum. Swamping someone else’s space, and flooding it with vitriol, is childish, rude, and hateful. Renee, nor her readers, are looking for their petty commentary.

Fortunately so, the comments are shut down on those posts. But here, I want to speak up and vocalize my support for Renee and Womanist Musings. It is a wonderful blog, and I’ve learned many things from Renee in the months I’ve been a reader. Bloggers don’t get enough thanks for what they do, and especially not those who dare to speak out against the kyriarchy.

Kudos, Renee.

Obligatory Introduction Post

I’ve got a lot of things swimming around in my head right now, so I’m just going to jump right in.

I’ve been toying around with the idea of starting a new blog (I’ve been blogging in one form or another since 2003, mostly on LiveJournal) but Renee’s post on Womanist-Musings got me thinking about a lot of things. Mostly, sexual assault.

Sexual assault is kind of a big deal, to borrow a phrase from a dear friend of mine. It’s been broken down, analyzed from every angle, politicized, blogged on, and written about. The personal is political, as they say. I’m going to write about it, too.

I was sitting outside this morning, enjoying a cigarette, and reading Renee’s post on my phone. I started thinking about my own experiences with sexual assault, one instance in particular. More specifically, I started thinking about talking about my experience. To date, I haven’t, not really. And why? Because a lot of people would be angry. I’m not entirely sure at whom. My assaulter, you would assume, right? Except he wasn’t some stranger jumping out of the bushes. He was, and still is, a friend of mine.

Everyone hears the statistics. According to RAINN, one in six women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. But if it comes up in a conversation, the assumption will be that that one woman of six, is someone else. You don’t know her. It couldn’t happen to a woman you know. I’m not entirely sure those close to me would believe me, especially not if I gave a name. Mine is a typical story.  According to the same set of statistics published by RAINN, 73% of woman know their assailants.

My assailant (it is still difficult to refer to him that way, even though that’s what he is) was someone I trusted. I trusted him implicitly. I respected him. He has done, and continues to do, great things. If asked, I, or anyone else who knows him, would say that he is a great person. Great people can do bad things. This is one of the biggest mistakes that we make as a society in our dialogue about sexual assault. Sexual assault is bad. Therefore, those who commit sexual assault are bad people. This is a very bad assumption to make–because it hurts people like me.

Because of this assumption, we as a society make another, very bad, assumption. If someone is a Good Person, they by default cannot be bad, and because only bad people commit sexual assault, if a woman accuses a Good Person of sexual assault, she must be lying.

Think about that one for a second.

Odds are, you know someone who has been sexually assaulted, and someone who has sexually assaulted someone. It’s an uncomfortable thought, isn’t it? It’s that Bad Person assumption coming up again.

I don’t talk about my sexual assault because I can’t be sure that anyone will believe me. I don’t talk about it because I don’t want to get my friend, my sexual assaulter, into trouble. I don’t talk about my sexual assault because friends and family will be angry: angry at him for doing such a thing to me, angry at me for not telling anyone about it, angry at me for not pressing charges, and angry at me for continuing my friendship with my assaulter. I don’t talk about it because I don’t want friends to lose respect for him, one person in particular, even though I would feel a whole lot better if I did.

That, among a million other things, was what I was thinking about this morning. I would like to thank Renee from Womanist-Musings for her post. Go read it. In some ways, I can understand how difficult that was to write, but in other ways, I can’t. But it moved me. It said things that I’ve felt, but couldn’t express. It also moved me to finally sit down and create this outlet for the feminist in me.