Thursday, December 19, 2024

Unholy meditations?

Warning: this post is basically free of explicit gore, but readers who want to bypass autopsies and gun violence may want to mouse over to some other offering.


RantWoman has mostly muddled past the need to do Sudoku in Meeting for Worship, although she is not above dipping in just to fry other Friends' nerves. More to the point, RantWoman also is mostly attending worship on Zoom with no time to get into Sudoku on the bus. RantWoman has found no electronic Sudoku that works without freezing up with her phone accessibility tools. More's the pity.


But wait. RantWoman has a NEW vice: RantWoman now attends Zoom worship on one device and, un-Quakerly drum roll pleas...,looks at Twitter / X on another.


Hush now. RantWoman will be too happy to go on about the still small voice in a small electronic box. RantWoman does not want to hear what a cesspool Elon's sandbox has become. RantWoman goes there willingly, does not engage with trolls, and gets a read on all kind of things RantWoman would much prefer people not think. Hold that in the Light.


Surprisingly to RantWoman, sometimes Twitter yields Light topical to some or another frequent theme in RantWoman's mental Yucky Topics festival.


This week's Bad Friend Yucky Topics festival started from a question a collaborator asked RantWoman that was partly what happens for an autopsy and what about informed consent?


Bad news when it's gun violence there is no informed consent. Hopefully there is "informed" but legally there is no choice about autopsy. Nor do autopsies always get done on the timeline preferred for Muslim burial practices, a topic where locally there is a weary sense of "we have been working on that for years. RantWoman has not been working on this topic. RantWoman just has a network of people she can call to stich together connections for people who ask RantWoman questions connected with the recent death of a 15-year-old. A gun was involved. Therefore an autopsy was required. The Twitterverse contains indications that the death was accidental but precise details were beyond what was needed in the autopsy conversation.


Last week in worship, RantWoman was holding all this in the Light--and swiping away on her phone. During Worship, the Twitter thread du jour was about clearing a gun, making sure it is unloaded before handing it to another person, and then even if one has just seen someone clear it, clearing it again. Apparently this is a common trust gesture among people well-schooled in gun safety.


RantWoman wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to clear a gun. RantWoman does not particularly want to (need to) know this BUT RantWoman's mind wandered in a surprising direction: would mandatory gun safety classes in high schools keep young people from doing stupid things with guns???


That to RantWoman seems like a FAR more desirable option than active shooter training.


These thoughts came along with the anniversary of the Sandy Hook mass shooting. RantWoman's YouTube ad stream alternates between all sorts of very discrete ways to concealed carry and Sandy Hook dad Mark Barden's please to sign a petition about banning assault rifles. The awkward celebration point: in recent ads Mark Barden looks a lot less distressed and more centered than previous rounds. What a thing to need to keep grieving about though.


And at least two more school shootings this week, along with another spectacular moment of gun violence RantWoman will try to tackle separately.


See where worship....

Sunday, December 8, 2024

GOP Senator READY To BACKSTAB Trump (sic)

What's a nice Quaker like RantWoman doing opining about the nominee to be Secretary of Defense in the new administration?

Read on


This headline is unnecessarily inflammatory. How about something more like GOP Senator read to stand up for responsible cabinet choices

Hegseth is a perfect illustration of why we should never send people into war without planning for whatreturning vets will need. Charitably, he almost certainly needs help about whatever he is self-medicating with alcohol. That said, the DoD serves the whole country not just drunk Christian rapists who scream Kill all Muslims. Surely Joni Ernst cannot be the only member of the #GOP Senate who cares about what impact Hegseth's attitudes about women will have on recruiting. Much bigger supporters of the military than I say the US military has huge problems about military sexual trauma. And while we are talking about recruiting, considering who is overrepresented among people who serve in the military, ranting against #DEI is also really bad for recruiting. Pete Hegseth has way too many holes to dig himself out of and Joni Ernst shouldn't have to be the only person coping with crybaby #MAGA eager to suck up to the incoming rapist Commander in Chief.

Saturday, December 7, 2024

From Letters Live YouTube Channel Matt Berry and Peter Capaldi explore history in modern eastern Europe and Turkey

We interrupt our daily torrents of trauma from the interwebs to appreciate a famous communication from 17th century equivalent of modern Ukraine / Turkey.

CW: indelicate and unQuakerly vocabulary.

Friday, December 6, 2024

Why I love Lawrence Odonell and why a nice Quaker even cares about the SecDef nomination crashing and burning.

Once in a while it occurs to RantWoman to consider the career paths of media commentators. 

Lawrence Odonell draws on his own experience as a capitol hill staffer with a very literate and reflective voice.

RantWoman could not necessarily pull that off, which is one reason to admire Lawrence so deeply.



1. Be not afraid of transgender people in restrooms. Be afraid of Faux Snooze commentators too drunk to stand up.

2. When in ANY crisis do people get to call in Mom to spin their own behavior.

3. Who on Earth wants a sloppy drunk clamoring around in the situation room like Rudy Giuliani after the 2020 election?

4. A bipartisan commitment FINALLY to completely and successfully audit the DoD. But someone who ran two different nonprofits into the ground using their resources for a party fund should not get ANYWHERE near the Pentagon's kazzillion dollar budget.

and this is all before the rapey Islamophic white supremacist stuff.

How nice that even #DonThe Con may be able to grok all of this if the media does its work digging up truth and the public screams loudly enough.

Maggie Haberman Trump whisperer on Pete Hegseth



What to do if you appear to have a massive alcohol problem and mentioned for a job with an adjudicated rapist and unabashed sex predator? Definitely bring up a #SCOTUS confirmation where someone who also likes beer and faced down a decades old accusation of sexual assault got confirmed partly because the President who nominated the judge suppressed thousands of reports to the FBI. The sexual harassment and drunkenness accusations are a lot fresher and NOTHING about Hegseth's financial mismanagement record suggests he will be anywhere near competent to ensure a bipartisan audit, let alone manage the Pentagon budget. I don't care what Hegseth's mom says. Women across the political spectrum are sick of the Rapist Elect putting in place other rapists. And the number of Hegseth's drunken fiascoes definitely does not bode well for his ability to maintain composure during a global crisis. Ba-bye Pete.


PS, from another Twitter / x rant: The Department of Defense is supposed to defend all of the US, not just drunk Christians who shriek kill all Muslims.

PPS. Between the famous letter from Hegseth's mom and coworkers' comments about Pete's treatment of female coworkers, RantWoman wonders whether Pete's own difficulty about women in combat might partly from an inability to think about women any other way than opportunities to play grabass.

Sunday, November 17, 2024

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

What is a Chief? Lecture by Legally Blind native artist TONIGHT 11/13 6 pm

 TONIGHT! Presentation by John Halliday (on zoom)  in person in Anacortes

 

Humanities Washington Presents: What Is a Chief?

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Date:  November 13, 2024

Time:  6:00 PM - 7:30 PM

Location:  View Facility

Anacortes Public Library:   1220 10th Street, Anacortes, WA 98221

Link:  Join by Zoom


 

At the age of 55, John Halliday became legally blind. As a Muckleshoot Tribal member of Duwamish ancestry, Halliday says his Native American world view, cultural traditions, and values, which have sustained Native tribes throughout history, long before colonization, have helped him overcome the challenges associated with losing his sight. 

 

Too often, our understanding of American history begins with foreign European powers “settling” the land—as though no thriving human communities existed here. Woven in with John’s personal story, audiences will learn Washington State history from a Native American perspective, and how that history can teach resilience. 

 

John Halliday (he/him) is a legally blind Native American artist of Muckleshoot, “Duwamish,” Yakama, and Warm Springs Indian descent. Halliday recently retired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs as Deputy Regional Director for the Navajo Region after serving as CEO for both the Muckleshoot and Snoqualmie tribes. Halliday has shown his art at Lakewold Gardens, ANT Gallery, and the Sacred Circle Galleries of American Indian Art under the artist name “Coyote”.

 

Halliday lives in Steilacoom.