Cynical Mom

My politics

Emilin & Brooke from Name That Mama just had their baby. I only stumbled across their blog a few weeks ago but immediately subscribed after reading a few entries. I've been reading the countdown to the end of the pregnancy eagerly, and was so excited to see the post a couple of days ago with pictures.

Unfortunately, some assmunch got nasty in the comments:

I pity people like you, you'll never have real families, but unfortunately this child will not have one, either.

And if that weren't bad enough, she threw in some personal attacks:

I swear, I think I'll see pigs fly before I'll see a homosexual woman that looks decent enough for any self-respecting man to be interested in her.

People like this commenter are one of two reasons that given the choice between the two major political parties in the US today, I am a fierce liberal. Tax the hell out of me, I can handle it, but don't you dare try to tell me that someone else is not my equal because they choose to have romantic relationships with someone of their own gender.

And the worst part is that it wasn't a random post, but the post where they posted pics of their new daughter! I can't even conceive of someone doing such a thing on my "she's here" post, a result of my own hetero privilege that I can assume I won't be attacked - at least not for that.

AGHH. It just makes me so angry.

I don't get it anymore

Like most of the country I followed the news on Katrina, including the stories of people who refused to leave. I was terribly offended at the people who said "Why won't they LEAVE?" and cited stories of the elderly, the infirm, the carless, people with no money and nowhere to go. I felt like I understood why some people didn't leave.

Well, I take that back. My husband's grandparents live in Houston and are quite elderly, both of them having had a couple of strokes. His grandmother has one working lung.

They won't leave.

It's not clear that they're at risk for flooding, probably not from direct water, but who knows about the heavy rains. They're probably at higher risk from powerloss and then heat exhaustion.

My mother in law has pleaded with them to leave, and even already told them about the "permanent marker" approach - i.e. "Fine, if you won't leave, here's a marker, write your social security number on your body with a permanent marker so that your body can be easily identified." They wouldn't do that either.

I don't understand anymore.

Oh, and here's the kicker: My husband has two uncles with families in Houston too. Except they don't talk to their parents for a variety of reasons -- from what little I know of the history, the reasons are probably pretty good ones. But still. My mother in law has not been able to get in touch with her brothers to find out what they are doing, if anything.

Spending time wisely

Texas congresswoman Senfronia Thompson made an impassioned speech against Texas' "Gays Scare Me" law, aka HJR 6. See the full text here (interestingly enough, I've seen this forwarded in email and referenced in many blogs, but can't find any official source of the transcript... anyone? The Houston Voice article does back up several of the points so for now I'm going to assume the full text is accurate.)

The Houston Voice summarizes the discussion around the law. This quote left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach:

Rep. Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin) asked Chisum whether he thought HJR 6 was discriminatory, and Chisum replied, “I know I’m not discriminating because there is no person in Texas that does not fit under that one man, one woman.”

I think what he was trying to get at is that gays aren't "persons"? That would explain Senfronia's reference to "Rep. Chisum's 3/5 of a person amendment", at least. Is there another way to read this?

Do you even have to be supportive of gay rights to think that this is not what any part of our government should be spending their time on?