Flying Shortbread

I don't think 'natural' is good. There are many things that we apply (some almost arbitrary) (some ignorant and backward ideas of natural and not-natural agenda-propagating) rules of morality. I think 'natural' is a political rhetoric, profoundly abused.  'Diversity' is the only defensible rhetoric for 'thinking' beings. We are not, of course, the only creatures that do thinking, but we are the only creatures with the power to oppress others and other creatures whose languages we don't understand.  Us (badly) thinking creatures, slowly, ponderously gathering the evidence of our badness (I see no reason for your (god's) patience with us), have the ability to decide to be better than (the fashionable) 'natural' of the day.  It is our responsibility to transcend our vileness. Just that. That one task. Our thinkingness I believe is for that. A world (constructed by god) to demonstrate this point. And we will find every rhetor...

#WhatsappEtiquette 1. Just add me. Don't ask if I want to be added. I know where the Exit Group button is. 2. Anonymity is out. Everyone must supply their full name. We're on the group to make contact and share views, make decisions, meetup IRL. If it's anonymous, random names, random numbers, talking is difficult to follow. What is the purpose of group? Networking? As soon as you're added, tell your full name and what you do that is relevant to the group. 3. Harassment. If girls on the group are harassed, what kind of group is it, what kind of men belong? She should Exit Group. 4. No spamming. If admins let spam through, Exit Group. 5. Private conversations in-group are out. If it's not for everyone, take it outside the group. 6. Be succinct and purposeful. Don't use extraneous words. Get to the point. Don't cause more than two dings. 7. Don't expect immediate responses. If I am meeting you, let's meet at your house so you're not ...

A Christian speaks of liberties and Christian Reconstructionism preventing Christians from implementing a theocracy that enforces justice (for fetuses) not freedom. fetsiboomsticks: Occam asks how come you guys don't consider that it may not be about civil liberties and whatever other big words have been bandied about. It could be as simple as not wanting your child to be subjected to foster homes and the abuse of the fostering and adoption system. Why don't you abandon all notions of having your own children? Adopt ferociously and take up great tracts of land into Christian kibbutzim, where women who are considering abortion would prefer to deposit their children than face the indignities and guilt of adoption... and abortion.

David R. Dow says that violence at home breeds violence on the streets. My comment: This is a tough one. With the pace of change, parents who aren't keeping up feel that they have become useless and burdens to their kids. Parents feel that they have to pander to their children's desires in order to maintain the relationship. Parents have lost their confidence among the criticisms of how they bring up their kids and the minutiae of 'correct' breast-feeding. Their self-deprecation leads to self-loathing and violence. The globalization of knowledge has brought with it judgementalism, people looking over their neighbour's walls figuratively through the TV and other media. When accused, people act aggressively. And women... Women are so much more likely to not passively accept their husband's violence. Violence breeds more violence. The whole structure of the family needs to change to accommodate. And that's scary. I believe Dan has the answer.

Religion is always worth it. I have nothing against any religion. I love religions. I don't believe in hell. But I also don't believe in so many other things, this is just one of the things. I know that whether I believe in it or not doesn't make it existent or not. I know that I have to understand what it means for those that believe in it. Just like I have to understand all the things that people believe in, or at least allow for it. I don't challenge it, I think. The fact that I don't believe will always be taken as a judgment, just like differing opinions always imply judgment of some kind. The only way people can communicate, is by suspending their taking of a difference of opinion personally, and by finding a workaround. fetsiboomsticks

The normal list-making that I do goes like this. TASKS IN INBOX • think of something • get out iPhone and send myself an email • first word of subject - Task. e.g. Task. Get tickets at Computicket for Pandora OPTIONAL I filter my emails that 'Task' gets a favorite star and a Tag (label) called Task. I can then easily see what the tasks are. I can also search for Task and it will show me all my emails that begin with the word Task, and I sort that list by date. As soon as I have done the Task, I simply take off the favorite star and Archive and it archives to the folder Task. Then I can even look and see what I have already done. That feels good! CRITICAL AMOUNTS OF TASKS This way I can see how many Tasks I have on hand. I can see that there are 29 Tasks in my inbox - 30 is my limit. When I hit 30, I take two hours each day and kill them. Thwack! LONG-TERM TASKS TREATED SEPARATELY Then there are the long-term tasks, e.g. LT Task. Website idea for jobless people. ...

I am a political conclusion. I am one of European ancestry. I am not, culturally, an African. I don't relate to anything cultural anywhere in Africa. I am filled with Americanisms, by choice. I can't call it American culture, it has no form or substance in my life other than: film. I hate what colonialism did to Africa. Colonialism did something to me in Africa, but it didn't make me African. I was born in South Africa, but my mothers blood did not seep into or out of African soil. I am not an African.

I'm interested in racial politics, I'm interested in how to make the situation better between the races. I am interested in sexual politics. I find my eyes drawn to those group dynamics. The rolling of your eyes when I say the word 'men' or 'black' is controlling me - you are saying that because your interests are different to mine, or because you believe one should never say these words, that I may not speak of the things that interest me. Go to your house and do what you want. If it weren't for women like me, you would not know that infibulation starts with shaving. ... Cinnamon Gurl sparked this off. Thanks. Each week the Flashback Friday: Feminist Edition will feature a story that has something to do with being or becoming a woman or feminist. This series will continue until I run out of stories. I love having guest bloggers. If you have a story you want to tell and you want to be a guest blogger here, please email me ( fetsiboomsticks@gma...

PORN Get up, stand up, toughen up, tighten up. Smudge dark circles Under your dark eyes Flat tension built from mouse to train and back again A death grip A fear trip Come down

The normal list-making that I do goes like this. TASKS IN INBOX • think of something • get out iPhone and send myself an email • first word of subject - Task. e.g. Task. Get tickets at Computicket for Pandora OPTIONAL I filter my emails that 'Task' gets a favorite star and a Tag (label) called Task. I can then easily see what the tasks are. I can also search for Task and it will show me all my emails that begin with the word Task, and I sort that list by date. As soon as I have done the Task, I simply take off the favorite star and Archive and it archives to the folder Task. Then I can even look and see what I have already done. That feels good! CRITICAL AMOUNTS OF TASKS This way I can see how many Tasks I have on hand. I can see that there are 29 Tasks in my inbox - 30 is my limit. When I hit 30, I take two hours each day and kill them. Thwack! LONG-TERM TASKS TREATED SEPARATELY Then there are the long-term tasks, e.g. LT Task. Website idea for jobless people. ...

Some 21s lists that I made up, more at my website 21 ways to get over being dumped Go on a wild kissing spree Arrange a dinner party every Friday night from then on Stop talking about it, eventually you will kill the synapse that used to think about it Take up a new sport or exercise routine Join a club Start a club Write a book about what to do to get over being dumped - not one of those new age things, a horror where your ex dies in the end Hunt down someone the complete antithesis of your ex, and flirt outrageously Start a new business, something you have always wanted to do - or at least take the first step. Make a list of all the things your ex prevented you from doing, and do all of those things - every day. Dump your boring old therapist that got you into this mess, and get a new one. Take a trip to a white beach 21 most obnoxious famous people Tom Cruise Anthony Quinn Clark Gable George Bush Mel Gibson 21 ways to lose weight Sweat and Starve - exercise and...

When there's a group i want to belong to that promotes a certain moral imperative, how do I choose?  The first way I decide on which of two similar groups to belong to, is 'how many members'. The second way is 'how much communication the creator creates'. Granted the dealbreaker is the quality of the communication, but numbers are powerful.  It takes stamina and guts to speak alone. Support is a gift. Support has an effect on an advocate's confidence. If there are no advocates because the cynics stifled them, how would our world look? Activists are advocates. If activism is not your thing, fine, it's not everyone's thing. But don't use cynicism's power to withdraw support. 

Because the Seinfelders think differently from each other shout and scream... (of course the actors have contracts, the friends in the show can't just dump each other whenever they feel like it)... constructs a society where we get over our issues. Crossing my fingers that we can do it here in South Africa.

How lucky am I? My mother, Marion Pretorius, was my mentor. She taught me to say "No", and she taught me to say "Yes". To say "No" when people wanted to take advantage of me, and to create opportunity for good things to enter my life by saying "Yes". "Yes" makes room for you to have all sorts of experiences, to learn, and to grow your confidence. All sorts of confidence count as tickmarks. Confidence answering the phone. Confidence organising a function. Confidence using an email program. Confidence using... confidence doing... confidence making... confidence speaking... confidence in action. And as the pile of tickmarks grows, so does confidence. Erick Mulaudzi Humbulani asked.

Flashback Friday, a column on feminist notions... When women-haters die, not a peep, but when a woman who defended the right of women to have man-free spaces dies (translation in women-hater speak - man-hater), then there's a big hooha. At least Mary Daly didn't exploit men as sex slaves, as work slaves, rape, abuse and snuff them. And if you look closely, you will find she pointed at women too, the ones who were used to uphold and disseminate the patriarchy in families - she tried to make women aware that they were being used to enact the patriarchal exploitation tools - footbinding, infibulation, so many. Like you. Who are 'infibulating' her. ... Cinnamon Gurl sparked this off. Thanks. Each week the Flashback Friday: Feminist Edition will feature a story that has something to do with being or becoming a woman or feminist. This series will continue until I run out of stories. I love having guest bloggers. If you have a story you want to tell and you want to...

Flashback Friday, a column on feminist notions... Joan McGregor “It should be noted that normally we do not let others exploit an incapacitated person and take advantage of their condition.” Adrienne Rich "The assumption that ‘most women are innately heterosexual’ stands as theoretical and political stumbling block for many women. It remains a tenable assumption, partly because lesbian existence has been written out of history or catalogued under disease; partly because to acknowledge that for women heterosexuality may not be a ‘preference’ at all but something that has had to be imposed, managed, organized, propagandized and maintained by force, is an immense step to take if you consider yourself freely and ‘innately’ heterosexual. Yet the failure to examine heterosexuality as an institution is like failing to admit that the economic system called capitalism or the caste system or racism is maintained by a variety of forces, including both physical violence and false consci...

This has to be urban legend, because if this story is true, it's no wonder Facebook cares very little for our privacy and has coercive policies that benefit third-party application owners over users. The coercive element is the element where in order for me to maintain my privacy, I would have to have a Facebook profile that no one could see. That defeats the purpose. So when I make a friend, I accept their ignorance about the risk that they have exposed me to through the applications they have on their profile. I have none, but their applications have access to all the information they have access to. So if my friend can see that I am married, so can all the applications they have. So in order for me to participate, I HAVE TO ACQUIESCE to the privacy abuse. And yes, it is my choice. Thanks. :{ HISTORY OF FACEBOOK Facemash Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in his Harvard dorm room. Mark Zuckerberg invented Facemash on October 28, 2003 while attending Harvard as a sop...

A community parade - based on something totally arbitrary and not activist oriented. Something that will let the community have fun with each other. A dress up parade. The Bowler Hat Parade. The African Mask Parade. The Angel Parade. The Zebra Stripe Parade.

Strangely, this movie was about Harvey. I guess there are rarely films of gravity and wit about men's lives, but you know I was there for the Emma Thompson's character's backstory. That would have been far more interesting to me. You know I love Emma, she can do anything! And frequently does. I love her expanding middle and I love her crows feet. Perfect realness. Real perfection. And this is not vitriol, just admiration. The film is 'nice', I don't always want to see issuemovies. And yet there were issues, just well disguised. Tangible. Not too funny, not too sad, not too surprising. Britishly well-restrained.

I know... from now on when people say give it a bash, and I give it a bash and I can't figure out why, then I have to work on it again and again until I figure it out. This is my lesson to learn. You MUST read this Time article by Steven Johnson - How Twitter will change the way we live . Now don't be lazy. Focus on what he says about that conference, and pretend that we, you me and our groepie are a conference, let's call our conference 'Facebook', or 'South Africa', or other things we have in common. Why do you read my status updates? Same reason you should read my tweets. In fact, Facebook and Twitter and Google have all got their eye on the statuses. You can be patient and wait, they will probably become one. But Twitter is for those statuses that want to stream out into the world, that don't want to be confined. That want to be Clouded, Tagged and Aggregated. So that people can see patterns in what we are talking about.   Come play. It's n...