Topics

1

Writing / Calling writer/editor types, come in!

« on: February 09, 2010, 10:54:27 AM »

I've been writing short stories. To make a long story short, in the aftermath of all my postpartum stuff I met a great counselor who encouraged me to write things down, and I did, and now I have three drafts of stories. I've journaled before but I have never tried to write something from start to finish, so this is new to me.

Here's where I need help -- how do you edit and revise? What's your process, if you have one? Because I have a mess of sheets of paper on the floor, with things written and re-written literally dozens of times, and I feel like I'm drowning in all the paper and versions and possibilities. What do you do?

This is not for publication, or trying to be an author, or anything like that -- this process of writing has been healing for me, and I want to see it through from start to finish. I don't care if it's "good," or publishable, but I care that it's exactly right the way I want it. If that makes any sense. I feel a deep sense of satisfaction from it.

I've been to the library, looked at how-to-write books, and they just make me feel more overwhelmed. I don't know anyone in 3D life who writes stories. I think there are some writers and editors here -- berlynn? skdadl? arborman? I may be remembering wrong. But anything you could tell me about how to make order out of my mess of papers I would hungrily read!

2

Feminist News / As Layoffs Surge, Women May Pass Men in Job Force

« on: February 06, 2009, 04:15:08 AM »

New York Times

With the recession on the brink of becoming the longest in the postwar era, a milestone may be at hand: Women are poised to surpass men on the nation’s payrolls, taking the majority for the first time in American history.

But don't celebrate just yet! Women tend to make less and have less benefits, so this change results in an overall worsening of conditions for workers:

Women may be safer in their jobs, but tend to find it harder to support a family. For one thing, they work fewer overall hours than men. Women are much more likely to be in part-time jobs without health insurance or unemployment insurance. Even in full-time jobs, women earn 80 cents for each dollar of their male counterparts’ income, according to the government data.

“A lot of jobs that men have lost in fields like manufacturing were good union jobs with great health care plans,” says Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. “The jobs women have — and are supporting their families with — are not necessarily as good.”

And while men are spending more time at home, they are not necessarily becoming homemakers:

When women are unemployed and looking for a job, the time they spend daily taking care of children nearly doubles. Unemployed men’s child care duties, by contrast, are virtually identical to those of their working counterparts, and they instead spend more time sleeping, watching TV and looking for a job, along with other domestic activities

Anecdotally, I have to say that this article is dead on. In my circle men are losing their jobs left and right while women are keeping theirs, or taking on new ones, but the women's jobs are worse (and the men wouldn't be caught dead doing them). There's a lot of buzz about the men being depressed because they can't provide, thus explaining the sleeping and TV watching while the wife works and does the housework. I don't know what to think of that.

3

The Arts / Motherhood, Arts, and Crafts

« on: January 31, 2009, 11:38:05 AM »

Last night I went out with a group of mothers. We made some do-it-yourself pottery at a store in the mall, where we picked out pre-made pieces and painted them. All of us agonized over the choice of pieces, vacillating between fun stuff for ourselves and keepsakes that we could make for family. Everyone picked the keepsakes, making things like plates with kids handprints and picture frames that said "I Love Grandma."

I did the same -- I didn't want to be the only mother who made something fun, you know?

While I was painting, I thought about the pottery class that I had taken ten years ago at community college. Somehow life took me, and probably everyone else at that table, from making original, creative art to painting a pre-made frame with "I Love Grandma" (and paying ten times the cost of materials for the privilege).

It was a very nice night -- I was there for company, not for art -- but it made me think about art, craft, and motherhood. There was no reason that I couldn't have taken one of the pre-made pieces, shattered and re-formed it, gotten creative with the paint, and made something original. But I didn't. It seemed indulgent and wrong to do that. How much of craft is motivated by guilt, or by the sense of needing to do something constructive with time?

This is rambling, I know, but if anyone wants to talk about arts, crafts, motherhood, obligations, and so forth I'd like to hear about it. Free associate!

4

News / Deprogramming Jihadists

« on: November 09, 2008, 07:34:17 AM »

This is just weird.

New York Times: Deprogramming Jihadists

The sunset prayer had just ended, and Sheik Ahmad al-Jilani was already calling his class to order. When the latecomers slipped into the front row, Jilani nodded at them briskly. “Young men,” he began, “who can tell me why we do jihad?”

The members of the class were still new and a bit shy. Jilani clasped his hands and smiled encouragingly. Before him, sitting in school desks, were a dozen young Saudi men who had served time in prison for belonging to militant Islamic groups. Now they were inmates in a new rehabilitation center, part of a Saudi government initiative that seeks to deprogram Islamic extremists.

If the Saudi rehabilitation program succeeds, it could reduce the ranks of dangerous extremists and have a far-reaching impact: domestic and regional stability and, though it’s not a stated goal, increased safety for potential targets in the West.

This is exactly what makes people distrust mental health services. I don't know what motivates someone to do jihad, and I don't know if that motivation is actually a problem or not, but I DO know that therapy and rehabilitation should not be used to advance a nation's political agenda.

Although this quote is just plain funny:

Though the exact nature of the role that religious belief plays in the recruitment of jihadists is the subject of much debate among scholars of terrorism, a growing number contend that ideology is far less important than family and group dynamics, psychological and emotional needs. “We’re finding that they don’t generally join for religious reasons,” John Horgan told me. A political psychologist who directs the International Center for the Study of Terrorism at Penn State, Horgan has interviewed dozens of former terrorists. “Terrorist movements seem to provide a sense of adventure, excitement, vision, purpose, camaraderie,” he went on, “and involvement with them has an allure that can be difficult to resist. But the ideology is usually something you acquire once you’re involved.”

Yes, it's just a lack of joie de vivre causing bombings! If we could just make the life of every Saudi man exactly like a teen movie, with a band of friends (camraderie) going on a mission (adventure and purpose) that's dangerous (excitement) but teaches them an important lesson (purpose), we will achieve World Peace!

5

Feminist News / Pregnancy Pact at US High School

« on: June 20, 2008, 07:32:17 PM »

17 girls at a high school are pregnant. It's all over the news here. Supposedly they made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

It creeps me out a little that the school is tracking the number of pregnancies. Dunno why -- they get the tests at the school clinic so it makes sense, but something about it is icky.

Notice the distinct lack of reporting on the fathers...

This was on my local news as well, and they added the fact that the school clinic is not permitted to dispense contraception, and the school can't teach much in the way of sex ed.

A pregnancy pact may be responsible for a dramatic rise in young mothers-to-be at a Massachusetts high school, Time magazine reports.

Seventeen girls at the 1,200-student Gloucester High School had positive pregnancy tests, more than four times the rate the previous year, the magazine said in a story published online Wednesday.

On Thursday, the local newspaper, Gloucester Daily Times, reported the number had risen to 18.

Principal Joseph Sullivan told the news weekly that nearly half the pregnant teens, all age 16 or younger, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.

"Some of them decided that this was going to be their life plan, that they were going to be mothers, and by being mothers, they would be someone."

Some have also blamed Hollywood for glamourizing pregnancy with movies such as Juno and Knocked Up, plus Nickelodeon star Jamie Lynn Spears becoming a mother this week at age 17.

CBC

6

USA / Who should I vote for?

« on: February 21, 2008, 08:34:03 PM »

Okay guys and gals, it's showtime. I have a Democratic primary ballot for Ohio burning a hole in my hand, and I need to fill it out and mail it in next week. Trouble is, I still don't know who to vote for. I'm pretty damn close to just not voting, to tell you the truth, since I'm so lukewarm about both candidates (and so angry that it's down to two before my state even had a chance to vote). But I always vote, on principle, so I think I have to choose.

Help me out here. Who would you vote for?

7

USA / FBI Database of Physical Traits

« on: February 04, 2008, 05:31:24 PM »

The FBI wants to compile a database of the physical features of all Americans:

CLARKSBURG, West Virginia (CNN) -- The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists

First up, he said, are palm prints. The FBI has already begun collecting images and hopes to soon use these as an additional means of making identifications. Countries that are already using such images find 20 percent of their positive matches come from latent palm prints left at crime scenes, the FBI's Bush said.

The FBI has also started collecting mug shots and pictures of scars and tattoos. These images are being stored for now as the technology is fine-tuned. All of the FBI's biometric data is stored on computers 30-feet underground in the Clarksburg facility.

In addition, the FBI could soon start comparing people's eyes -- specifically the iris, or the colored part of an eye -- as part of its new biometrics program called Next Generation Identification.

CNN

The information would be taken from FBI background checks, which are pretty routine for regular people. I've had to have 3 so far for various jobs. It disturbs me to think that this kind of information about me would be on file, and also that my data will be used to experiment with this project.

8

Environment / Backcountry Rescues: Charge for Them?

« on: January 08, 2008, 01:15:51 AM »

I totally stole this from EM (thanks Em-ers, sorry to poach a topic  :oops: ) but I thought it was a good, juicy one that I'm undecided on.

Should people be billed for backcountry rescues? This father and son were:

A father and son have been asked to pay $2,500 for triggering a dangerous search and rescue after they snowboarded out of bounds at Vancouver's Grouse Mountain ski area last weekend.

CBC Link

I was stranded in the backcountry once (long story, not getting into it publicly), so this is an interesting one for me. I kind of think that you shouldn't be in the backcountry unless you are equipped for some potentially dire consequences (including long exposure to the elements, whatever they may be), but I acknowledge that there should probably be different expectations for a backpacker vs. a recreational snowboarder.

Oh, this is in Environment because I think of it as an environmental issue -- people are increasingly taking dangerous risks in the wild with the assumption that they will be bailed out, and it affects both the physical land and how people come to view the land.

9

USA / Cloned Meat

« on: January 05, 2008, 01:34:13 PM »

The FDA's getting ready to approve cloned meat and milk, and it sounds like Canada may not be far behind.

Having completed a years-long scientific review, the Food and Drug Administration is set to announce as early as next week that meat and milk from cloned farm animals and their offspring can start making their way toward supermarket shelves, sources in contact with the agency said yesterday.

The decision would be a notable act of defiance against Congress, which last month passed appropriations legislation recommending that any such approval be delayed pending further studies.

Since when did the FDA go all stealth-ninja like that?

Sorry, the link is WaPo which sometimes needs an id:

FDA to Back Food From Cloned Animals

So to recap the state of affairs in my country:

Morning-after pill: FDA says is bad, fights, despite scientific advice.

Stem-cell research: FDA says is bad, fights, despite scientific evidence.

Cloning animals for milk and food: FDA loves, tries to sneak past Congress so that it doesn't need to wait for scientific evidence.

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The Arts / C-Section Art

« on: December 22, 2007, 08:52:01 AM »

I found this website of c-section art. I thought it was pretty powerful. Click on the thumbnails on the right, and make sure you scroll beneath the pictures to read the text.

Don't stop after the first picture -- click through, she addresses PPD, the crappy way doctors treat women patients, etc. etc. I've never had a kid but some of what she created about doctors hit home for me.

Enjoy!

http://cesarean-art.com/html/frames/framesetall2.htm

ETA: it's bloody and possibly disturbing, depending on your disturbance threshold...

11

USA / Drugging and Deporting

« on: October 12, 2007, 02:21:47 PM »

US immigration has been using Haldol, an injected anti-psychotic drug, when it is deporting people. The ACLU is suing to stop the practice.

Here's more from the Boston Herald:

SANTA ANA, Calif. --Indonesian immigrant Raymond Soeoth says he was awaiting deportation when four officers stormed into his holding cell, wrestled his pants off and pinned him down for an injection of anti-psychotic drugs.

The second plaintiff in the lawsuit, Amadou Lamine Diouf, alleges he was forcibly injected with psychotropic drugs in the aisle of a plane at the Los Angeles airport that was to return him to his native Senegal. Diouf says the ICE agents escorting him gave him the injection after he asked to speak with the plane's pilot to tell him that he had a judge's order temporarily staying his deportation.

The pilot ordered Diouf and the agents off the plane after they struggled in the aisles. Diouf became sleepy and dizzy and had numbness in his legs that prevented walking, according to court papers.

Diouf had been ordered deported for overstaying a student visa.

Arulanantham estimated, based on Myers' testimony, that at least five deportees are involuntarily drugged each month, leading to hundreds of potential cases.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/10/aclu_seeks_to_stop_drugging_of_deportees/

12

USA / Bush's DOL and mine safety

« on: October 03, 2007, 07:39:35 PM »

ETA: Here is a better link with more on the story: http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3954

I don't know if anyone has been following the Crandall mine collapse story, but the investigation into it is yielding disturbing information about how the Bush Department of Labor operates.

Here's some snippets from CNN, I am sure there is a better source out there but I am not in the mood to dig right now!

The collapse appeared to be a "preventable tragedy," he said.

"In late August, we requested a comprehensive list of critical documents and communications from both Murray Energy Corporation and the Department of Labor to help us with our independent investigation," Miller said. The department oversees the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA.

"I regret to say that neither the department nor the company has been fully cooperative with us to date. They have yet to comply with many of the basic requests for information," Miller said.

The Department of Labor has created additional problems by cutting staff, hiring officials from the coal industry, failing to move decisively to require miners to be provided modern wireless communications and underground rescue chambers, and failing to track mine operators' compliance with rescue plans, he said.

The Crandall mine was non-union, but Cesar Sanchez expressed frustration that the United Mine Workers had been barred from participating in the investigation.

13

USA / Rove Steps Down

« on: August 13, 2007, 07:01:36 AM »

Rove is out!

CNN Link

ETA: Why does this group always use "spending more time with my family" as the excuse?

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USA / War Strategist Named as "Madam's" Client

« on: April 13, 2007, 09:33:45 AM »

I don't know if anyone's been following this story, but there's a "madam" (love that word!) in DC who has been threatening to out her clients if she's prosecuted. She finally named one, and he was involved in war planning in 2003. I'm not really sure in what capacity, I will have to dig up more.

But this quote from the story grabbed me:

In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as "one of the regular customers" of the business.

Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the "shock and awe" military strategy that was associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"The allegations do not dignify a response," Ullman told CNN. "I'm a private, not a public, citizen. Any further questions are referred to my attorneys."

CNN

I guess I am wondering where the line is between a public servant and a private citizen, and what protections a publicly-involved private citizen ought to have in this situation.

It's also an interesting parallel to the Duke Lacrosse accuser being outed.

15

USA / Duke Lacrosse Accuser Outed

« on: April 13, 2007, 09:14:14 AM »

The woman who accused the Duke lacrosse players of raping her has been named in the media.

Here is a link to the Washington Post's media analysis blog, which talks about it Link

And here's my brief summary for non-clickers:

She had been protected because she had been sexually assaulted, but once the prosecutor decided the accusation was false the media outed her.

They are suggesting she might be mentally ill, and she might genuinely believe her own story (as opposed to being a malicious liar), which makes the decision to out her a complicated one.

And here is an interesting snippet from the Post (bolding mine):

New York Post columnist John Podhoretz makes the case:

"It is the policy of the news media not to publish the names of rape accusers on the grounds that they should not have to fear public shame for coming forward with word of a horrifying personal violation.

"That is a noble policy. But it needs a codicil. The codicil is that if a rape accuser is revealed as a liar, her name should be spoken loudly and often -- as loudly and often as the names of those whom she falsely accused have been over the past year . . .

"She must be denied anonymity because she makes a mockery of the very policy of granting anonymity to rape accusers. We do not publish their names so that they will not fear public exposure. But people who are tempted to do the monstrous thing [the Accuser] did should fear public exposure.

"They should be terrified of it.

So what do you all think? Are false accusers "monstrous?"

Did the media handle it right?