Adopt, Ride, Reform!

1. It's getting chilly out folks so please be mindful of creatures who might be cozying up to your warm car engine. It happened to this grungy but gorgeous specimen here in NYC. I feel like there should be an entity besides 911 that you call when you find a cat under your hood but there isn't and the cat is safe (for now, as it was rescued by a city agency it was sent to the CACC which is a very full, kill shelter). My childhood cat, Blackie, (shut it, I was 3) was found in this exact same circumstance and was saved because the janitor at my dad's school stopped dad from starting the car and possibly hamburgering the cat so this is an issue close to my heart. Spay. Neuter. Adopt. Seriously. If you recycle your cardboard boxes then adopting your pets seems like a good fit for you.

2. We've been over and over how I really like kids I just don't have that burning urge to keep one myself, right? We've also been over how that doesn't keep me from getting attached to some of the cooler specimens on the planet. Nora Smartypants can't be more than 8 years old, I think she's only 6. She likes to write stories and make them into self-published books. Please go read her latest work (scroll down) and note that she blurbed it! She is fantastic.

3. I want you to start your holiday shopping here. Thanks to Feministing for the tip. Also? Please don't buy me one.

4. I have had occasion to talk a lot about internet trolls lately. I think I've finally extricated myself from a bad spiral with a particular instigator (not here) but the subject is on my mind because dang that shit was hard. Derek Powazek talked about it a little and went over the "green hair" theory. I'm not sure what I think about it.

5. So apparently 53 Republicans have signed a letter to POTUS requesting that he fire a gentleman whose job title is "Assistant Deputy Secretary at the Department of Education for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools" because in his non-work life he has worked for and with LGBT youth. So, to recap, because he's keeping a category of youth that they dislike safe they want him fired from a job where he is tasked to keep all school kids safe. I would write more but my head just exploded. Terrible mess. Very hard to see the keyboard now.

6. A dog's age ago (kind of literally) Wayfarer was delving into the meaning of marriage and what the sanctity thereof might mean. He got sidetracked. Here's a little nudge for him. I know he's too busy to be reading blogs these days so if anyone talks to him please nudge him on this item's behalf.

7. Frequent Women's Colony contributor, PhD in Yogurtry, posted an interesting piece about health care from a provider's perspective. If you've never known anyone who is clinically depressed or don't believe in such things you probably shouldn't read it since you'll think it's all bunk. Anybody else should please jump right on over.

8. I don't know if you've been reading about Al Franken's anti-rape legislation. (Thanks to Susie Bright for this particular assessment.) The summary is that currently if you work for certain companies (Halliburton) your contract can include a promise to take all disputes, including proven criminal actions like, say, rape, to arbitration. Franken's proposal is to deny government contracts to companies who require such clauses. 30 Republican Senators voted against the bill (Hi Not-President McCain!). They had more than one objection but the interesting one is this, "the government had no business interfering in a private contract between a company and its workers." I'd love for someone to cross reference how many of the objecting Senators also identify as pro-life and therefore think their government has every right to interfere in contracts between me and my cunt.


9. I know that I'm a stinking socialistic commie fascist government blowing pig because I voted for Obama (or something) but I really like it when governmental agencies work for the good of community. (COMMunity, COMMunist, it's no wonder people hate me.) Here in NYC I'm told (by Gothamist) that school buses are being offered as rides for Senior Citizens to get groceries during the school day. If you read the rest of the article it shows you how the math works out so nobody is being fucked by this. You know, I'd be OK with being a little fucked so that this kind of good could occur. I'm glad I'm not but still...

10. I'm getting a lot of my good political news from Susie Bright these days. I like that. It seems that the economic downturn is helping more politicians to see the light about prison reform. Of course they're looking to reform as a money-saving measure rather than a humanity-saving one and yet, I'm encouraged. (Yes, it's still true that it costs more to kill someone than to keep them in prison for life. And we're right back to the whole pro-life argument, funny that.) 

In conclusion, reform a human, adopt an animal and give a senior citizen a ride to the grocery store and you will make me happy. You want to make me happy, don't you?