RedHead Confetti

While I grew up with a television centric family, I’ve gradually stopped watching it, and for about the last 15-20 years I’ve only kept a peripheral eye on it. I love cartoons, and good movies, but I just can’t sit still for them anymore. It’s not like I have to be moving, moving, but I just get bored sitting there, staring, and find myself picking up a book. I used to do that when I was a kid, and into my 20’s too. If the television was on, the volume was low, and it was background noise while I read, or played a pc game, or did something else. I’ve always been bad about remembering when a show was on, even the ones I like, and so I tend to miss a lot of pop culture. I always shrugged it off, and figured that as long as I watched the news, I was ok. I might have missed some references, but I didn’t miss them. However, for about 5 years I have avoided watching news videos—whether live or on YouTube/Twitter/etc. I’ve judiciously read the news, avoiding photographs of the VIPs in the ...

Warning: This blog is ranty, it contains sarcasm, anger and profanity. It discusses abortion rights. If you can't handle that, this one isn't for you. So, I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now. It started with the Ohio and Missouri heart-beat bills, compounded with the travesty coming out of Alabama, and came to a boil with Georgia’s “Hold my beer” bill. Each of these, and mind you this isn’t all of them, are bills that specifically ban abortion care. Each of these is couched as a way to “protect babies”, but treats women like an afterthought—if they think of us, at all! We have been reduced to incubators, to hosts, to objects. And to say I’m angry, or pissed, is probably the understatement of the century. [NB: You can see an article here , discussing all abortion bills that have passed, or are being taken up, on state level. Not all of them ban it. Some actually protect it. For your edification.] I read “The Handmaid’s Tale” when I was a kid. I had t...

Yesterday, January 21, 2017, I walked with 15,000 Tucson residents and visitors; I marched for Women, for Immigrants, for Religious Minorities, for  Persons of Colour, and everyone else who stands in solidarity and is working for equality. I didn't watch the Inauguration-- the first one I've missed watching on television in my adult life. I couldn't say good bye to Mr Barack Obama and his lovely life-partner, Michelle Obama, and say hello to Donald Trump and Melania. I couldn't watch, I couldn't listen to the speeches, see the sad parade, or listen to the few "F" listed bands and musical acts that were convinced to participate in the event that day, or the night before. Rather, I prepared myself for the Women's March, on Sunday. I marched in the windy streets of downtown Tucson, expecting rain. I knew my sisters marched in snow, rain, flooding and cold, across the United States, and (as I later learned) in many, many countries across the world! W...

Trigger Warning: This blog discusses the very public comment of an Alabama state representative and her anti-choice stance. I will am focused more on her lack of knowledge, but the snark, sarcasm and general profanity levels will be high. I have always tried to call out ignorance when I see it, and this my Dear Readers is totally chosen ignorance. If you'd rather not read such things, or have GOP-stupidity syndrome fatigue [and I can't blame you one iota for that one!] you may want to skip this one. Actually said, in public, aloud, on the Feb. 14, and quoted in the Montgomery Advertiser :* “When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body,” ... “That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.” I'll bet you had no idea that a foetus was an organ, let alone an embryo . I'm pretty educated in anatomy, and I don't remember learning that bit of information, mysel...

Warning: This one meanders a little, and flips between Pussy Riot in Russia, and Syria without much to warn of the topic change. I believe the free speech situation in Russia and the revolution in Syria are both important to think about, and work to resolve. I'm a little bit ranty. Pussy Riot has been all over the news, world wide. Last week three members of the revolutionary, political-feminist band was sentenced to two years in a prison work camp. These women basically stormed the church, and used the altar to perform a "punk prayer". They are artists, in my opinion, who use their art as a way of exposing the bad things in their country's political process-- much the way artists have always done. They are called "dissidents" at times, but I don't think that's quite the right word. While yes, they do are a group of "persons who oppose official policy, especially that of an authoritarian state" and are "in opposition to the offic...

Late Friday night, at the absolute worst time-- or very close to it, Mitt Romney announced his choice of Veep: Paul Ryan, a Republican Representative from Wisconsin. I wasn't sure I was going to write about it, but the more I thought about this thing, the more that one thought was spinning around in my head. A thought I share with you now: If the USCCB says your little budget plan is an immoral and anti-Catholic plan--- well this is a group known for protesting any woman, any where for using birth control -- and claiming said women are infringing on these precious little Bishop's feelings; a group that has supported the rapist, over the child being raped-- even though there's an adorable paper that demands they tell each other about the rape, and maybe, eventually get around to telling the cops [after the offender has moved to Rome, or something, though, can't let him be *gasp* arrested for his indiscretions!]; a group that is firmly on the side of Vatican City aga...

My husband presented me a situation the other night, as we were getting ready for bed. He'd seen a link on his car forum about a restaurant in Lancaster county Pennsylvania that was in trouble with the law for discriminatory discounts. He, like many others whose comments on this story I've now read, didn't get why that one was not OK, but “kids eat free” or “senior citizen” discounts were OK. He's not alone in this confusion, and it's an unfortunate thing; I was able to explain it to him, though, so now he knows. But that got me to thinking. Too many Americans have no idea what their laws say, or what they mean, except that they have “freedom of religion, so fuck y'all!” [I will explain why they are acting in an illegal manner shortly.] The article he sent me is from Fox News. I went digging and found the Lancaster paper online, and the comments are almost as bad as the Faux Noise ones are! Wow! Talk about self-righteousness on display. Anyway,...