Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2006

How I 'became' a feminist and lesbian

Flashback Friday, a column on feminist notions ... One of the things that really astounds me is the Awakening. You know that feeling of lying in bed and suddenly realising that you have been awake for some time. You realise that you have been lying there thinking and time has passed. Catching those last few thoughts before the Awakening lasts as long as the memory of a dream - not long. My waking into feminism was exactly like that. I never thought I 'needed' feminism. I knew myself, my mind, my capabilities. I could act and react. I believed that the only difference between men and women was biological, genital, surmountable. How wrong I was. I became aware that my previous stance and my current stance is a choice. The world brainwashes you, as does any system, feminism included. The difference is, that if you have become aware of an alternative reality, it undermines the ubiquitousness of reality number one. Alternative realities give the possibility of choosing, of maki

My opinion about the Apartheid Museum

To think that I travelled all the way to Europe thinking they had the best museums. Ptuie . The Apartheid Museum is in Johannesburg, at Gold Reef City. At the ticket office you get an entrance ticket that says 'White' and 'Non-White' - take the Non-White one and the first experience you will have is what it feels like to see the privileged walk in one direction, while you are forced into another. Then, after having your mind blown all the way through the museum, come out and in front of you is a large stairway (with large stairs on the right and small stairs on the left) that leads up, and you can't see where to. You can take big or small steps into the future - but you can't predict what the future will be. So clever.

Anni Snyman exhibition

Memory of Water exhibition

My perpetual desktop - still not bored with the Doctorow image

This is my desktop. I spent hours pottering around the Internet googling 'winged girls' and found only the siliconed, botoxed fantasy girls spewed out by masturbating men (and those spewed out by women that accept the macho masturbatory standard). "Fuck that for a loop," I spat. A Cory Doctorow bookcover provided the girl.

Gay marriage vs Civil unions

Opaqueherm Very valuable questions, that you ask and that we all struggle with, whether or not we belong to a long-established hegemony or a newly-forming one. It does seem odd to seek marriage that has come up through the ranks of ages as a method of legitimising certain people over others - the progeny of this sort of union are better than the progeny of that sort of union. “This woman is my property, as are her children and my other property will go to them if I so decide.” Suzanne du Toit and Annemarie de Vos, who tested the adoption laws - that only one woman could adopt a child, not a pair of women. Annemarie adopted two children, and found that were she to die, that Suzanne would not legally be able to continue to live with and mother the children. They would have to go back into the foster care system and Suzanne would be offered no recognition of time served. They won. The courts now recognise, thanks to them, that those children belong to both women and no one can take th

Ellen vs Rosie - attitude to their responsibility as lesbian rolemodels

Kim Ficera, talking about how it is irrelevant whether Ellen DeGeneres is contractually prevented from visibly being a lesbian or mentioning anything about lesbianism, or whether Ellen is self-willing her lesbian-silence - either way it makes Ficera want to switch to an alternative viewing network and watch out-and-loud Rosie O'Donnell: Ellen DeGeneres might be out and proud (although not as publicly proud as she once was) but Rosie O'Donnell is out and loud. Many lesbians will tune in to The View just to see what gay outburst Rosie will make next. Likewise, people who don't like lesbians will tune in for the same reason. That's surely something Walters thought about when she asked O'Donnell to join the show. Conversely, no one -- not even the biggest lesbian in the world, wherever she might be -- tunes into Ellen's show to watch her discuss lesbian issues, because she never talks about lesbian issues. And that's fine. I understand completely why Ellen mi

I cannot bear criticism because it stfiles

I guess the real reason why I struggle to write... is that I CANNOT BEAR CRITICISM. It is something I really have to work on. It's my karmic hangover. I have been back for this a million times, I know it. I am so careful when I write and I cannot bear an assumption that I haven't thought of that criticism and made it the way I wanted it to be no matter what the criticism. I am STILL, yes really, STILL gritting my teeth about her response to my first paragraph, I know I have to forgive her, but I just can't. And do you know how carelessly she did it - she doesn't even remember me showing it to her or what it was about. Ok, Ok, I know I am no good in this department either, but it hurts just the same. I would rather not write than be subject to this kind of carelessness. A client recently said to me "Ag nee Froglet, ek het nie sulke lang tone nie", and gave birth to The Short-Toe Campaign. It's been going for about a month and I am fiercely promoting i

Defining collaboration - an opportunity to share your soul

How can you possibly respect someone who cannot get off her butt and write but wants to tell others how to? Nope, I think it is unacceptable. And it makes me completely neurotic. Seriously. someone showed me some of her writing, where she saw birds flying in the moonless night sky. Needless to say, after my 'revisions' I never got asked again. I never jump off the cliff and can never be 'revised', but I submit others to 'revising'. Uh, Uhhh. Editing isn't work to me, unless you present me with a deadline. I love doing it. What I hate is doing what (I hate)[I don't really hate it, but it's not what I desire to do]{typesetting/design} for my friends, and then they think that they can get more out of me and make demands on me than they would on an ordinary typesetter. And the laws of business just disappear out the window. Guilt arrives for almost anything an ordinary day would call minor. When you do it willingly when asked, putting your soul into

How rapport works

Kinesthetic Auditory Visual Strategy mirror with changed content - Ask them questions to assses how their strategy works using the keywords, then bounce their style sequence back to them with your content. Do not assume that they use the same strategy all the time - strategies are context specific.

Is bullying different in a co-ed school?

Reversal of 'My mortal core was exposed.' Girls' school - Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers and The Twins at Saint Claire's. In a girls' school you don't learn how to look with a man's gaze until TV gets a good hold on you. I wonder in a mixed school that that is why you get girl bullies. Although it happens in girls' schools too, it isn't based on the traits boys like you for, it's based on your personality. In mixed schools it's how you look.

Mass activism by accident - the AIDS epidemic is very public and death is an activism

Activism can even be quitting your job and taking another: The turning point was the AIDS epidemic. As people were dying, closet doors flew open, and the straight world quickly learned that the gay one wasn't as alien as they imagined. In Hollywood, this had a particular effect via the Disney cartoon blockbusters "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin." Because many of the leading Disney animators were gay, rival studios lured talent with the promise of same-sex spousal benefits. Faster than Aladdin's genie, this practice went industrywide, with a once-reluctant Disney falling right in line... Gay Marriage Gets Even Keep the confetti handy, because the tide has turned on same-sex unions. By David Ehrenstein

What did Mel Gibson say exactly?

RASCIST During Mel Gibson's arrest for drunk driving he uttered anti-semitic remarks - "Fucking Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the police officer, "Are you a Jew?" SEXIST: ANTI-WOMEN The media is going ballistic about the anti-semitism, but rarely is it reported that he uttered sexist anti-women remarks to a police officer, calling her 'sugar tits', during the same incident. He apologised after the drunken incident and included, I imagine, his sexist remarks, "I am deeply ashamed of everything I said." SEXIST: ANTI-BIRTH CONTROL "God is the only one who knows how many children we should have, and we should be ready to accept them." In my opinion, if he had said, "Women shouldn't work, they should stay home and look after broods of children, be at the beck and call of children all day, become brain dead, accept the harried woman she sees in the mirror, and give her h

Put HIV Under G - a pocket for condoms - a great opportunity to highlight HIV in South Africa

Under G has produced a pair of boxers with a condom pocket in back. Girls are buying the boxers because it gives them a friendly and fun way to introduce a condom into their sexual exploits. See, there is always a solution to the problem, it just takes a moment to drag oneself away from the problem. Great,genius, The letter I wrote SAFM (where I heard the report): I loved the story about Under G (with the condom-pocket boxers). What brilliance! I think that the inventiveness of that problem solution should be focused on, that the inventor should be lauded, and rewarded for looking at the problem sideways and finding a way for women to introduce the condom issue into their sex lives in a fun way. I would pay R500 towards such a reward. But couldn't find them on the Net, but will keep hunting. Why don't you guys take the initiative... What an amazing advertising opportunity for you.

Socialist notions of sharing wealth

If you are very wealthy, the poor will target you. Whereas if you give up some of your wealth to help them, you protect yourself, because fewer people will be targeting you. So we need a society where the people are more or less all middle class. Once there, we can all move forward. Now, the poor are siphoning off the rich and the rich are running to stand still.

How to you make time?

When you look at your life you will see what it is that you love doing. Rather do what you love doing, do it well, make money to pay others to do what you don't want to do, but they have a passion for.

Pro-gay heterosexuals - they do exist

Somehow Dan Savage always puts a "d-uhh" spin on everything. I love the way his mind works, it tends to the obvious, whereas the rest of us try to make things so complicated. Dan Savage, editor of The Stranger, a Seattle alternative newspaper, argues it would be good for the district to send someone who is not gay to the Legislature. "When a district with a powerful gay bloc sends a pro-gay heterosexual to the Legislature, that makes a statement to the other heterosexual legislators about the possibility of being a pro-gay straight legislator," said Savage. Source: The Seattle Times

Zanele Muholi Exhibition

Subject: Zanele Muholi Exhibition From: Fetsiboomsticks What: Only Half the Picture by Zanele Muholi Where: Market Theatre Photographic Workshop, 2nd President Street, Newtown (About two blocks from the Market Theatre, across the big parking lot away from the Theatre and the Nelson Mandela Bridge, not that next block, the next one, about in the middle of the block you will see large metal gates that have images welded into the metal) then you can park in there and the Workshop is to your left up a tiny little set of stairs, ring the bell and you will be let in). Why: Lesbian/women/feminist images Where: Market Theatre Photographic Workshop, for viewing details call 011-630-4460. When: Until 10 September 2006, I think. How much: Entrance if free, but there is a book of the exhbition, that I had to get into car, go all the way to vaguely safe ATM, draw money, walk, pay attendant (who didn't believe I would be back again), walk, back in car, drive back, buy book - it

Don't abuse Google, and don't forget they are a private company

There are those of us that approve of the death penalty for use as a deterrent to the abuse that conscienceless people perpetrate against those who are innocent, AND that make people suspicious of those of us just trying to work hard and get the job done efficiently, while maintaining integrity. An argument can be made to liken Google to the Death Penalty. If you try and abuse the search engine optimisation process, by hiding links on your page, using noscript tags or whatever, Google will ban your URL off its search engine. Your URL is like your physical body ~ killing your URL is killing your webpresence ~ death. In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey explains this principle ~ you set up a clear outline of what behaviour will get approval (rewards) and then you knows exactly when (the other) has fallen short. Google says ~ have great information on your site, write articles, be informative, be interesting, be fun; then people will link to you; then Google w

Monkey maybe do - ideas that don't make sense, stand out

Get it? He puts "Ask me about the monkey" on his business card and then waits for you to ask him about the monkey. Then he simply points out that he practices hypnotic selling and he just got you to do what he wanted. By asking you something rediculous it stops your brain in its tracks. The question makes you pause. The question makes you focus on HIM (founder Joe Vitale). The Japanese practice this "hypnotic confusion". English phrases on Japanese products are bizarre. A tube of toothpaste might say, "Green days you not sing". A box of cookies might say, "Wood above fish".

Preventing copyright abuse by the ignorant innocent

Discussion on 702: • Make consumers unsure of whether they are getting what they pay for. Distribute DVD movies to the sellers of pirated movies that half way through a screen comes up and says that its a pirated version and that the small amount of money consumers have paid for the DVD has been donated to a fund to return money to the artists. And don't give the consumers the end of the movie. • Usury punished. Consumers can buy local artists through the internet for cheaper than in a local shop. Consumers feel cheated and justify their copyright infringements.

Big Brother (Male) - If threats don't work, try bribery

The Soviet government is trying bribery, offering the equivilant of US $36,000 to any woman who has a second child. The cost of raising a child to seventeen is somewhere between $140,000 and $280,000, not including pre-high school expenses or loss of income if one parent stays home. I'm not saying I wouldn't reject the $36,000 check if someone offered it to me, but I do have a little hint for those governments who really want more children. It won't guarantee your country is chock-full of kids but might help make it easier for those who do decide to help out the state of the union by reproducing: try national good quality health care; universal preschool and college; increased equality, and respect for women's reproductive and political rights. If that doesn't convince folks to have children then, hey, maybe they just don't want to. Source: Rachel Neumann at Alternet

Clitoridectomy in the 21st century

Alice Dreger, a medical humanities and bioethics professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, gave an eye-opener to a woman considering surgery because of her shame about the large size of her clitoris. Most of the surgeons out there hacking away at different-than-average clits don't know much about clitoral geography. They've finally started confessing this in the medical meetings I attend. For example, the nerves turn out to be in different places than most of them thought. Oops! And most of them don't know that most women masturbate by rubbing the shaft of the clit—which is kind of like how most men masturbate, by rubbing the shaft of their penises. Meanwhile the shaft is what surgeons typically remove, thinking only the glans (the nubbin at the tip) is what's important. Oops again!

Sistah! A note of appreciation

Sistah! I was just thinking about you. I realise that I never appreciated this enough: that you are a 360° person. The fights, the fun, the laughter, the intensity, the games, the sleeping in the sun, the reading - all those things made for a 360° relationship. And when I think of the friends of yours that I liked, Linda, Richard, Lesley, Bridget - they were all people that could handle your 360°ness and the thing that I appreciated about them was their 360°ness. I was thinking this morning about how uni-dimensional one has to be in relationships in order that that other person doesn't walk away. In a way we are going to spend the rest of our lives pretending that we only have this 1° and hiding the 359°. It's like living in a state of perpetual blackmail. And instead of appreciating what you were teaching me I tried to pare you down. Sorry. Thinking about this has definitely put a different slant on things. Thanks. (The fact that she is so radically there, allows you to be m

Douglas Adams Towel Day 2006

25 May (the day his memorial took place after his death on 11 May 2001). To recognise Adams' invaluable contribution to the fine art of interstellar travel and the necessity to make the towel ubiquitous to travelling. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels. A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value—you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if y

Call for Papers: Contemporary African women's writing of resistance

The editors of a second anthology in the series Women Writing Resistance seek writing by African women regarding resistance to particular challenges or oppressions faced by women in Africa today. Of especial interest are personal narratives, testimony, interviews, short stories, poetry, short plays, folktales, and lyrics. Visual art considered. Topics may include HIV/AIDS; FGM; sharia law; poverty and lack of access to education, health care, credit, political power; armed conflict, rape as a weapon of war and displacement; challenges of emigration and exile, legal or illegal; polygamy, abuse and lack of power in heterosexual relationships; resistant sexualities; intergenerational conflict and resistance; tradition vs. modernity; more. Deadline has been extended. -- Tayo Jolaosho Cell 617.671.5402 ojolao@gmail.com "To educate man to be actional, preserving in all his relations his respect for the basic values that constitute a human world, is the prime task of him, who havin

Lali Sher requests submissions of poems or short stories for publication in South Africa

Would you like to tell your story? We are looking for poems, short stories, fragments. Choose from a list of themes on the following pages. A book will be published. Written by South African Women. Let the themes below be a guideline. Send in your stories to: .. Lali ray.sher@pixie.co.za On the edge 6 Degrees of connection. Synchronicity. Transformation Soul-hunger. Healing relationships. Separation. Extreme. Betrayed. Exile. Danger. Shape Shifter. Medicine woman. Living your myth He remains all his life a child. Finding Honeycomb. Love Potion. Ceremony and Ritual. Rites of Passage. Symbols of yourdream. The still small voice. Intimacy. The First Time. Raging Bull. What the bleep do we know? The Unconceived. Essence. Heartspace. Your legacy. The Sweetness of Silence. Footprints Walking the labyrinth. Slow Tango. The Stamp of Anger. Where in your life did you stop dancing? Dance of life. Mitake uye osin - we are all related. Eve? Eve Cohen? Guardians of the culture. The Zen

Internet access should be a universal human right - information is the lifeblood of modern economies

MWEB newsletter: On Fin24.co.za , a local ICT expert called on government to make broadband Internet access freely available in South Africa. He likened it to a basic human right – similar to electricity or water – and suggested that by enabling more people to work effectively from home, free broadband access could significantly reduce urban road traffic. A 10% reduction in traffic could save South Africa as much as R6,5 billion per annum in oil alone. Later: Finland has identified internet access as a human right (Time Magazine)

Ugly websites work - they say they care more for the customer than for polish

Mark Daoust, internet commentator. From The Surprising Truth about Ugly Websites When I wrote this article, I had beautiful, CSS designed websites in mind. The idea of an ugly website could present a positive message never crossed my mind. Yet the fact is, ugly websites do have the ability to present the perfect marketing message. What is that message? You can trust us. We are a family run business and do not employ a marketing team. Our website is simple, but functional. Most importantly, our goal is to serve our customers, not necessarily learn HTML .

The end of my communications with Ruplestilt

You were all waiting on tenterhooks to find out what the last word was in the debate between Ruplestilt and Froglet. Over the brief month or two that we communicated I suspended my disbelief that there was a man worth noticing out there, and of course, predictably, I realised I had wasted my time: On 05 May 2006, at 11:22 AM, Ruplestilt wrote (to his boss, but mistakenly Replied All): It is however interesting to note that Froglet and I subsequently entered into quite lengthy discussions about the whole titling issue, feminism, etc. etc. at a personal level and that a good rapport was established between us relating to the the whole sexist / gender issue. That said - I am no longer communicating with her ... primarily because of her fixed mindset and unreasonable (if not irrational) views on these issues. In those conversations she acknowledged that she is indeed a gay feminist / activist ... I suspect that she has been hurt in some or other big way and has a huge log on her shou

Monopolies are good for video sales, says Cory Doctorow

What if it were more expensive to produce and more expensive to distribute. If the economic rationale for creating a monopoly is that without it we would never get investment, then we should only create monopolies for investments that are taking place. Cory Doctorow, in response to a statement by an interviewer that: It is less expensive to produce and less expensive to distribute if you centralise operations in video distribution.

Tecumseh's curse - every Great Chief chosen every 20 years thereafter [would] die

One other variable worth mentioning is that Bush was elected in 2000, a year in the 20-year cycle of Tecumseh's curse, which declared that U.S. presidents elected then would not complete their terms. In 1811, the Indian chief Tecumseh was defeated in the Battle of Tippecanoe by William Henry Harrison. Legend has it he sent Harrison word that he - and "every Great Chief chosen every 20 years thereafter [would] die" - as a reminder of the death of Tecumseh's people….United States President Harrison did die of pneumonia in 1841. And with only one exception, all American presidents elected in a year divisible by 20 since that time have also died in office. This "curse" coincides with the astrological Jupiter/Saturn cycle, also a cycle of 20 years. The presidents who fell prey to the curse all were elected in years when Jupiter and Saturn conjoined in an earth sign. The lone president to survive the curse since 1840 has been President Reagan, whose 1980 election

Catching out the inattentive - pay attention

In the late 1960's a Texas legislator became annoyed with his fellow legislators' habit of passing bills without giving them proper study and consideration. He therefore introduced a bill commending Mr. Albert DiSalvo for his outstanding work in population control. At the time, Mr. DiSalvo was on trial for a series of murders and was better known by his nickname, The Boston Strangler. The Bill passed unanimously.

Communication is handicapped in the business environment

Because when you teach you are paid no matter what, and because you are given the time, you can spend time working out what the best way is to communicate with students. You can experiment with different communication techniques, and put your hand on their arm. You are exposed to trillions of students, all different levels of grasping and you learn how to adjust yourself. Whereas in the commercial world you don't get paid no matter what, and you rarely have the time. People are so busy planning what to put on their CVs that they never think about what the best way to communicate something would be - their way is the efficient way and if you cannot understand then there is something wrong with you. You're fired.

How to let go of a friend who is bordering on being a stalker

"Stalkers don't listen well"... Why are you speaking to them? You care too much what people think. Just cut her off. Snip. Do it now, before you become emotionally involved. I had a friend that I did this whole trip with and eventually I had to cut her off anyway. There are only two ways: 1. Either you just snippety. 2. Or you enjoy the attention, smoke the cigarettes, make them cook for you, buy you chocolates, revel in the attention... and then ten years later, snippety. Either way it's snippety. Just one way you feel guilty and the other way you feel horribly guilty. I would send an email to the stalker, and apologize for sending one. Hi Hitler You are driving me bats, please will you f**off and leave me the hell alone. Thanks Froglet PS: I mean it, pig. ... I just nipped out to the video store and the counterperson made a nasty comment about Brokeback Mountain. Tip: What you need before writing the f**off letter is to get someone in a conversation abo

A friend explains the way I watch movies, like Brokeback Mountain

A friend wrote: We have problem there. The way we watch movies (you and me) is very much the same way in which we approach new social situations. With anything new, you (Fetsiboomsticks) zone in on particular details / people, attach, interact. Your commitment to the interaction causes you to have to sacrifice some of the details and facts, no one can be everywhere at once. You walk away with a good idea of the all over 'vibe' that was present at the time and what views who held and what their interests were, those that got your attention anyway. But all the background noise and activity slipped by unnoticed. Me, new people, I withdraw, look on from the distance, expend no energy on the interaction, so there is quite a substantial bit of energy left to employ peripheral vision along with the normal absorption of details. I see who talks to who, where they're standing, who they're comfortable talking to, what they're drinking, who's hiding by omitting, who'

ROFLMFAO

I like mine better... Froglet: ROFLMFAO? Roll Over Fuckhead and Leave Me the Fuck Alone Olready? Grin. Ruplestilt: ROFLMFAO = Rolling on floor laughing my f*ing ass off

Curios Georgina

A definitio of semiotics

It's like genes are to biology what memes are to sociology. Well semiotics is kinda like the study of memes. Semiotics assumes linguistic principles in everything - and my thing that I like is how movie construction is like a language, a visual language, with linguistic units, that become slang and get passed around like sluts.

A letter to a stranger about my home country, South Africa

TeenyPen lives in Texas, and has been to South Africa and loved it. He is writing a gender critical critique of the Bible: I wrote: Oh my goodness, that's brilliant. I am looking forward to your book. You are being cagey about the title I guess it's not settled yet, so I guess I shouldn't press you. I have filled it into my iCal (digital calendar) to remind me in 2 years time to check for it. It impresses me when people actually do something, like you. Cape Town is great. People are so open and sharing, if you know them. And the culture stuff is good too. And there is no more beautiful place in South Africa, unless you like desert. My favorite places are north. It's quiet and the roads are open and there are no people. Now and then you see strange looking bushes. People are helpful and don't try to take advantage of you. There's little or no racism up there, people have lived together, sharing minimal resources for decades, and it's made them generous.

All men are not assholes

Ruplestilt: ...is that if feminists did indeed open up and allow me in, and come to the realisation that men are indeed not ALL the same ... Froglet: Ditto (feminist) women. Ruplestilt: ...then the foundation of an often very deep-rooted belief system has been seriously shaken ... and this is something that is much, much harder to deal with than to keep holding onto the notion that all men are assholes. Froglet: As difficult for (sexist) men to deal with the notion that all women are not (and I intend the crude reference) assholes. (Ooh, that was aggressive, can I take it back?) I am actually in a wonderful mood and couldn't resist the parry.

Repartee with a homophobe about Brokeback Mountain

(I was on top form the whole weekend, I was looking at myself astounded by my giftful gabbing). After Brokeback Mountain we went into Cappuccino's and had a coffee before going home. They have this circular smoking area. (I don't smoke but I prefer the vibe in the smoking areas, all those other verkrampte, "Eeeee, the secondhand smoke is killing me" whiners can sit together in the boring section if they want to). The smoking room opens without a door onto the outside of the restaurant (this is important for the next bit of the story... that there is a cave-like element to this layout, although not the design of the place.) But I didn't know that the movie was so long and I thought they were packing up the tables at, like, ten o'clock (it was closer to midnight). But no matter, the place where we were sitting was open and not-lock-upable) and the chairs built-in so I let them take the table and everything. But still the waiters hung around. Eventually the sig

Ms and Mrs are sexist, a clear explanation, if long-winded

Ruplestilt TOE-CRUNCHING is an easier letter to respond to. I have Pisces in the 6th House which governs competence. And it is remarkable how many ideas we have in common ('selfish' notion). And how strangely differing the ones we don't agree on are ('titling' notion). Do you think that the ones we have in common are Astrological and the ones we don't are Genderal? I am a Libran, don't puke. I am fortunate that my Libran tendencies are mediated by my Gemini moon rising, and the cat-o-nine-tails universe I live in, cheerfully. I was also grinning. You can't just go around naming new friends by who is gushing on you. My goodness, have some discretion, man. I compliment where compliment is due, I am not shy. I know what hard work it took for you to think like you do, that you are even prepared to engage the issue is HUGE. Now prepare yourself, I am going to share my beliefs, but you will have to consider very hard if you are going to punish me for