Archive for the 'politics' Category

Sarah Palin - the Anti-Feminist

Published
by
Nadia
on September 11, 2008
in feminism and politics
. 0 Comments

Of course, this is a sex blog and not a political platform. But as someone who is a staunch feminist, in favor of accurate and complete sex education in the schools, pro-birth control being easily accessible, pro-choice, I must in good conscience speak out about Sarah Palin. My emotions run high on this subject as she has clearly been chosen because she’s female, while also being the most anti-female person they could have possibly picked. The idea of her in the White House scares the shit out of me.

Gloria Steinem wrote a good piece in the LA Times.

And the blog Sexy Whispers has posted the following:

Women Against Sarah Palin

Friends, compatriots, fellow-lamenters,

We are writing to you because of the fury and dread we have felt since the announcement of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Republican Party. We believe that this terrible decision has surpassed mere partisanship and that it is a dangerous farce on the part of a pandering and rudderless Presidential candidate that has a real possibility of becoming fact.

Perhaps like us, as American women, you share the fear of what Ms. Palin and her professed beliefs and proven record could lead to for ourselves and for our present or future daughters. To date, she is against sex education, birth control, the pro-choice platform, environmental protection, alternative energy development, freedom of speech (as mayor she wanted to ban books and attempted to fire the librarian who stood against her), gun control, the separation of church and state, and polar bears. To say nothing of her complete lack of real preparation to become the second-most-powerful person on the planet.

We want to clarify that we are not against Sarah Palin as a woman, a mother, or, for that matter, a parent of a pregnant teenager, but solely as a rash, incompetent, and all together devastating choice for Vice President. Ms. Palin’s political views are in every way a slap in the face to the accomplishments that our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers so fiercely fought for, and that we’ve so demonstrably benefited from.

First and foremost, Ms. Palin does not represent us. She does not demonstrate or uphold our interests as American women. It is presumed that the inclusion of a woman on the Republican ticket could win over women voters. We want to disagree, publicly. Therefore, we invite you to reply to [email protected] with a short, succinct message about why you, as a woman living in this country, do not support this candidateas second-in-command for our nation.

Please include your name (last initial is fine), age, and place of residence.

We will post your responses on a blog called ‘Women Against Sarah Palin.’ Please send us your reply at your earliest convenience as the greater the volume of responses we receive, the stronger our message will be.

Thank you for your time and action.

VIVA!

The Importance of Net Neutrality

Published
by
Nadia
on September 6, 2008
in Uncategorized and politics
. 0 Comments
One of the beautiful things about the internet is the unfettered freedom with which people exchange ideas. Stifling this freedom would hinder innovation. But major internet providers want to decide for you what you get to see - they want to give priority to those who can pay for it and block content they don’t think you need to see (and yes, this is the UNITED STATES I’m talking about). Providers like Comcast have already tried to violate net neutrality - the principle of a free and open internet - by slowing down access to sites and media of their choosing.
“Net Neutrality has been part of the Internet since its inception. Pioneers like Vinton Cerf and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, always intended the Internet to be a neutral network. And “non-discrimination” provisions like Net Neutrality have governed the nation’s communications networks since the 1930s.” However, major internet providers have stated their intent to decide what you have access to - a lot of it depending on the companies that can afford to pay getting much more visibility and access. Imagine what this means for a small web-based company, trying to survive in a world where major corporations have far more money than they do. Imagine what this means for any potentially “objectionable” content you like to look at (such as this blog) that your ISP could decide you don’t need access to. You hear about censorship like this going on in other countries, but the threat of it going on in the US is very real.
“…as a consequence of a 2005 decision by the Federal Communications Commission, Net Neutrality — the foundation of the free and open Internet — was put in jeopardy. Now cable and phone company lobbyists are pushing to block legislation that would reinstate Net Neutrality.” It’s up to us to speak out and let the FCC know that we will not accept internet service that is slow or non-existent depending on how much money we cough up, or how much a business is able to pay to have their site accessible. The internet needs to remain free and open in the countries where it is currently so (and after that we can tackle the countries where the internet is already censored). Savetheinternet.com covers net neutrality more thoroughly and clearly than I can in this short blog entry, I suggest visiting their site and reading the FAQ. Take some time to sign the petition, write to your congresspersons and talk about the vital need for net neutrality on your websites. If you’re in another country where the internet is currently operating under the principles of net neutrality - make sure that your countries’ laws support this and prevent companies from taking it away from you. The internet belongs to us all and the possibilties for information exchange and technological innovations needs to remain free and open.
All quotations taken from:
“Frequently Asked Questions” Save the Internet. Free Press Action Fund. 6 September 2008. http://savetheinternet.com/=faq

Digression

Published
by
Nadia
on December 8, 2007
in politics
. 0 Comments

Alas this has been a quiet week, and I have no new adventures to relate to you. That should change tonight as I’m going to a swing party with Davey. I’ve been nursing a mild depression all week and today that leaves me feeling un-horny and un-enthusiastic about tonight and all the fucking that should go on. Bleah. I wish I felt better.

On another note, does this scare the shit out of you like it does me? If something like this passes, are all voices of dissent going to be silenced in this country? I guess they figure since they’re putting “violence” into it they can get around the first amendment which reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” But can’t you just see them jailing protesters who peacefully assemble under this idea that they’re “homegrown terrorists?” As it is people who dissent have been labeled traitors and “unpatriotic,” when in fact dissenting when your country is doing something wrong denotes, to me, an intense love of your country. If I didn’t love being American and all the freedoms that go along with that, I wouldn’t be as dismayed at the direction this country is heading in. Our rights are being slowly taken away, and that scares the shit out of me. Do I need to worry that some day I may be jailed for even posting this on the internet? It’s high time we got back to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and started running this country the way the founding fathers wanted it to be run.

Torture

Published
by
Nadia
on October 10, 2007
in politics
. 1 Comment

MasterDoc has come up with a new way to torture me - getting me to register republican. Now, in all fairness he didn’t force me to do this. There was never a command or demand made. But there was reasoned arguments and persuasion (and perhaps a little nagging). The whole point is to support a particular candidate in the primaries - Ron Paul. He’s a libertarian, running on the republican ticket and I have to admit that I like a lot of what he has to say about getting out of Iraq. (And MasterDoc had me read this piece the other day. He said it was seemingly written for me.)

Now, I’m sure that hell has now frozen over with my mailing out the voter registration form with “republican” ticked off as my party. I’m so far left that for me, on a conservative day I registered with the green party. I usually consider myself a libertarian socialist. I’ve only ever been registered to vote as independent or green.

It’s funny, I have a republican ex-boyfriend who would LOVE to hear this story. I’m half tempted to call him. Ha ha. He shocked me once by saying he might actually register democrat. This would shock him to no end but then he’d probably say something like “you’ve finally seen reason.” Funny thing is, I’m registering republican to vote for a fairly radical candidate. So perhaps my doing so is a somewhat radical move, not entirely out of line with my ideals. I dunno. You can rest assured that at the first possible moment after the primaries I’m getting switched back to green or independent.