Pam's House Blend - Recent Comments

My online history

Jake Goad — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:50:06 GMT

started with required class message board discussions in philosophy classes, then I moved on to our schools unofficial message board thinking if I did it in classes it might be worth checking out our schools student message board outside of class called www.thewolfweb.com which has over 33 thousand users registered for the largest university in North Carolina, NCSU, which is located in our capital city Raleigh.

Another message board called partyincollege.com spawned off that website to be a collection of many colleges across the US, although it turned out to be heavily east coast oriented & mostly colleges across NC that had the highest participation, which I visit on occasion, but it still manages less activity than the NCSU's message board alone.

Facebook & Myspace pulled me much deeper online, and campaign season brought me in contact with other sites like BlueNC.com, OrangePolitics.com, DailyKos, & of course the Blend.

I occasionally participate on local news & college newspaper websites commentary sections too.

If I had to pick one version of the online "me" that I use the most, it would far & away be: facebook.com/equality

Most of these sites relate to me locally though. The triangle area which is the heart/central part of NC where I've lived in for about 7 years includes 3 main points Raleigh (where my school msg board is run out of), Durham (home to the blend), and Chapel Hill (home to orange politics as it is located in orange county NC), and of course BlueNC is statewide, and that other message board that I mentioned was a collection of many colleges is still more NC oriented than anything else.

DailyKos is the only site where either don't know or haven't met at least some of its other patrons really.

Actually...

Caoimhe — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:43:54 GMT

I've pointed out before that of the 30-odd state constitutional amendments banning gay marriage, and the scores of anti-gay ballot initiatives and referenda across the country, every single one of them has been initiated or actively promoted by a Christian group. In contrast, I'm not aware of even one pro-gay measure that has come out of a Christian group. Not one.
Moreover, the "affirming" churches never seem to speak out against the language and behavior of the actively hateful ones. It's all very well for churches to claim to be "affirming," but that affirmation never seems to translate into action. The old phrase "all aid short of help" comes to mind.

Affirming churches have opposed every one of those anti-gay measures and have repeatedly spoken out in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, as well as open condemned the hateful, anti-gay churches.

The first people arrested in the prop 8 decision protests were Christian clergy.

Affirming Christian churches have been on the front lines, with the rest of the LGBT community, for years now.

I agree

RickCabral — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:36:52 GMT

In reference to Bobbi's first paragraph: I bought the box, but never connected it, so when tv went digital, here and JoeMyGod are where I get most of my news on those issues. NPR is always at least 12 hours behind you all, if not a whole day. The others are good, but Joe is quickie and Pam has more of the details (as Joe often recommends). So---I hope this is all just growing pains and that the community will reform in its new configuration.
I don't know any of you personally, but I still love you all.
Love,
Rick Cabral

A Blender since 2004

Stephanie — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:21:43 GMT

I came to the Blend in the summer of 2004 from a link on RawStoryQ, now known as PageOneQ, and it has been a daily read for me since then.

Prior to coming to the Blend, I hung out on several Yahoo trans groups which have since disappeared or become dormant.

Other current regulars I read are the thrice-weekly cartoon posts at Slap Upside the Head, Womanist Musings, TransGriot, Screw Bronze!, and The Cracked Crystal Ball II.

Outside of the LGBT universe, I read The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive and a number of other mental health blogs.

Was he listening...

zenith83 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:19:40 GMT

...to a Nelly song from 2002?

Promote an adjective

d'glenn — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:14:49 GMT

Technically there is no gender neutral singular of 'cattle'. In practice, you can understandably 'substantify' the adjective 'bovine' to use it as a noun, so even though it comes off as technical sounding, you can refer to "one bovine" if you really need the gender neutral singular.

Alas, no ratings

Mena — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:10:17 GMT

but that deserves a "4".

RIP, August Provost. Vengeance is ours.

donal1944 — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:08:18 GMT

This isn't the first murder caused by Bill Clinton's DADT. In 1999 PFC Barry Winchell's skull was crushed as he slept in his barracks. His "crime" was having and affair with a transsexual. One of the soldiers who conspired to murder him, Justin Fisher was released after serving only 7 years of his disgracefully lenient 12 year sentence. Winchell's commander, Major General Robert T. Clark, who shares the blame for the rabid homohating at Ft. Campbell with Bill Clinton, was not only exonerated in the murder he was... promoted to Lieutenant General.

DADT is christer military bigotry codified into law by a bipartisan Congress at the urging of Democrat Bill Clinton. Bush and the Republicans fully support bigotry and violence against GLBT folks so it was no surprise that they refused to repeal Clintons DADT.

Is that the reason Obama and the Democrats, who have the votes, refuse to do so? Obama captured much of Roves bigot vote from the Republicans and means to keep it. No matter the price. We pay the price and pay in blood. The people who urged a vote for Obama have a lot to answer for.

LGBT servicemembers will continue to suffer from official and unofficial intimidation, harassment and violence until DADT is repealed.

forgot my guilty pleasure

peteyPornpig — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:04:38 GMT

Queerty....for the Morning Goods....it's a guy thing

At least he wasn't masturbating

Fritz — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:03:47 GMT

Remember the story about Elvis Crespo:

The Grammy winner was masturbating in view of other passengers Thursday, prompting the plane's captain to radio the Miami International Airport's air traffic control tower, the police report said.
Officers interviewed Crespo upon his arrival but did not arrest him. No charges have been filed.
When asked by police at the airport about the accusation, the 37-year-old Puerto Rican singer said: "I don't recall doing that."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Bingo! This is why the federal hate crimes law must pass.

HunterC — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:57:15 GMT

The local prosecutor wasn't interested in taking the case to trial. So this ridiculous plea was accepted after the murder TAUNTED THE DEAD KID IN A VOICE MAIL.

The Local Law Enforcement Act (aka the hate crimes bill) would let federal prosecutors take jurisdiction when nonsense like this happens.

For any "progressives" out there who don't think there's a need to pass the Hate Crimes bill in Congress -- including some folks at Bilerico -- here ya go.

Not if trans also had a flattering second definition

peteyPornpig — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:55:24 GMT

Pick what ever feels best for you.

It's like gay meant happy, but it ain't used that way anymore.

Here's the thing I had to learn

Kynn — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:53:17 GMT

Sometimes, when people with privilege speak out against their privilege, they do so in a way that the cost will be borne by those without privilege.

If trans people feel excluded from here, that may be an annoyance and something for you, as a cis person, to get angry about -- but it's not the same as what we are feeling.

I had to learn -- and am still working on learning -- this lesson as relates to race. When I mouth off angrily because of white racist people, the cost of that will be borne by people of color, not by me.

You can see it here -- the backlash has been against, as Autumn puts it, "my trans peers" who have been rude to cis people. The fact that one of her two examples was not a trans person (and the other one was not weaponized!) doesn't matter -- trans people will feel the hurt, not cis people.

That is why would-be "allies" (such as me on matters of race, or you for trans issues) have to watch ourselves very carefully and remember who is going to pay the price for our actions. Consider what we are saying and where we are saying it, and act accordingly.

As I said, I'm still trying to fully absorb that. But I am a lot more careful about talking about issues related to race if it's somewhere that I, a white person, will be forcing people of color to bear the brunt of the backlash -- even though my "motives are good."

Wait, what?

chaoticgrace — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:48:30 GMT

"For whatever reason, the word cis, when pronounced, sounds offensive."

To you.

And maybe to all the people you've ever talked to. How many is that?

I mean, seriously -- this is the issue that people think is causing the problem? The word SOUNDS offensive?

I used "niggling" the other day on the phone. It's a word with any number of usefully functional synonyms; I rarely use it because it can be misheard. I'm not unaware of the impact of the sound of a word.

But that this word "sounds unusual" doesn't help your point -- plenty of specialized/medical terms sound horrible in one way or another, and if it sounds unusual, people are LESS likely to consider it automatically offensive somehow, IMHO.

Let's assume that I accept this. Let's assume I can find that many people who find the term "hetero" strange, clinical, etc. -- does this mean we remove it from discussion, for the sake of the straights who COULD love queers, if only it wasn't for that blasted word?

Look, I feel marginalized by even the concept that the word "sounding offensive" is somehow grounds to change our terminology. I get the impression you're trying to convince, and I'm not unsympathetic to the idea that if we called it "Mc-Gendered" or something people would take to it like ducks. But it wouldn't MEAN the same thing, it would still get used as a slur, some other people would decide it sounds offensive for whatever reason, etc., and the problem wouldn't go away.

Who would hurt?

Kynn — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:46:51 GMT

Us older and uglier non-cis people?