I think I’ve groused up some peeps before with my belief that charity bites. I think we use charity to make the government less responsible to the people. Feel good altruism replaces real progression to a a more just society.

Now this doesn’t mean I think people should stop being kind to each other or helping each other out when situations arise. Lord knows I’ve benefited greatly from the kindness of friends and strangers alike. Those acts have literally kept me and the Kid afloat. But wouldn’t it be better if our government did it’s job of ensuring domestic tranquility by making sure everyone has a safe home and enough food than by relying on the arbitrary nature of good deeds?

Professor What If has a fabulous series on “What if you could buy social justice?” and her latest piece is on Oprah’s Big Give. Oprah may be the best example of how charity is just not enough to make for social justice.

In addition to the celebrified glitz of the show and the emphasis that money can fix all problems, there was a marked lack of social critique. As argued in “The dark underside of Oprah’s Big Give, “by Linda Diebel, “when competitors tried to buy away the problems of two schools in Houston, Texas, “not one contestant turned to another and asked how such bleak Dickensian conditions could exist in American schools in the first place.”

Similarly, the systematic, institutionalized conditions of poverty, homelessness, lack of healthcare, etc, were not examined on OBG. Rather, the show relied on a Horatio Alger model, trying to save the world by pulling up one individual bootstrap at a time.

Those damn bootstraps. You know, if you have over 17 million (and climbing, I think my numbers come from the 2000 census) people in poverty and millions of working families who have to rely on food banks and charities just to make sure their kids can eat, then it is not a problem that can be solved one bootstrap at a time. It is not a matter of massive individual failings but a systemic problem that can only be fixed by changing the system. Currently the system is made up of a patchwork of government programs and private charities. This is not working. And we’ve already tried the all charity route (see anything before 1929) and that didn’t work either.

So you can’t get social justice by giving away a bunch of money. Honestly, I would prefer if Oprah just paid the highest tax bracket she could with no deductions and then lobbied congress for more aid to the poor. That might actually accomplish what charities can’t.

Just one quote- but go read the whole thing.

A lot of the far-right Jewish activity here is the direct consequence of having a state created out of war and sustained only at the cost of nearly constant war. I don’t think the influence of those right wingers has been good for the United States or the world in general.

So after a fairly miserable Christmas break with the Puppy, last week started out good. I thought we had worked some stuff out and i could now resume my normal life and deal with some huge issues that have been put on the back burner while we “worked on our relationship”.

And just when I was feeling ok and getting shit done, the Puppy had another bout of stewing over something stupid (I think he was hurt cause i made fun of him for being a 27 year old who has his mommy do his laundry). Anyways, I ended things. It turns out I was exhausted and boring and bored because he’s a giant time sucking hole of neediness. Every time I spent my time and attention on something that wasn’t him (like my Kid) he felt hurt by me in some new way.

So Friday night I ended things. And I just had the most restful weekend in months.

Besides, he hates that I am sarcastic. That’s a fundamental part of my personality and one that ain’t ever gonna change. One ex boyfriend said I’m Dorothy Parker and i like it that way.

The pictures below are triggering. But we must see the damage we do. This is a post about Israel, but as Americans we are complicit in the damage. Just like in Rwanda, where the Chinese and British supplied the machetes that led to mass murder, we have supplied Israel with the weapons they use to kill children.

January 7, 2009: 40 Palestinians sheltering at a UN school are killed by an Israeli bomb. What threat was this little girl to Israel?

February 28, 2008: Four Palestinian boys playing soccer are killed by Israeli bombs. How are they a threat to Israel?

What about her? Is she a threat? Israel has cut off Palestinians from the ability to work, then cut off food aid. The children are starving. But are they threat? Would they be more of a threat if they were well fed and safe from war, or less of a threat? I wonder if we have to push our minds very hard to think of another time when one race of people was kept at starvation levels in camps to make them less of a threat.

Israel is becoming the thing they are most afraid of. And we help them do it. It is in our best interest that Arabs have Israel to focus on as an enemy and that we have a testing ground for weapons without getting any actual blood on our hands.

And how can any country that bombs schools and starves enemy children really want peace? How does an eye for an eye (or eyelash) ever lead to anything but mass blindness?

that all the finger wagging at black people in California for passing Prop 8 was misguided.

We should have been putting the blame where the blame ALWAYS goes- godbags and Republicans.

that all the finger wagging at black people in California for passing Prop 8 was misguided.

I have pretty much decided that I am going to home school (well mostly unschool except for math) the kid for the next two years. His middle school experience has turned a kid with an IQ that makes school boards salivate into a depressed little monkey who hates school with a fiery passion. Once he’s a high school junior he can start taking classes for free at community colleges here that apply towards graduation credit.

The Kid has some motor skills issues (hypotonicity- it’s like his nerve endings don’t get the same amount of electrical current that they should so he gets worn out physically pretty fast) and surprise! He has my families tendency towards depression. So I have had an Individual Education Plan (IEP) with his school since he was in 2nd grade to try and address these issues. It’s like a legal contract saying that the school will provide specific services to help the kid achieve as much as he’s capable of.

This worked very well in elementary school. But it has bombed in middle school because they spend more time trying to get out of doing anything helpful and blaming me for it.

So our next little IEP meeting is set for early February. And since I no longer feel the need to be even the tiniest little bit diplomatic because the Kid can’t get hurt by a school system he’s no longer a part of, I am going to bring the smackdown. I think this meeting is going to turn out to be a long bitch fest about the school’s classist and racist tendencies. I think i am finally going to get the chance to confront them about their institutional problems. It won’t do a damn bit of good for the kid, but I think it might help some of the kids behind him.

I have pretty much decided that I am going to home school (well mostly unschool except for math) the kid for the next two years. His middle school experience has turned a kid with an IQ that makes school boards salivate into a

If you have ever been to the lovely welfare reform, American version of a job center known as Work First (cough snicker snicker) then you will recognize Pauline and the uselessness that is “Worker training”.

My crappy governor (who I only voted to re-elect because Dino Rossi is sooooooo egregious) has decided that poor women need to get punched in the face so she can balance the budget. Ok, punched in the face is hyperbole. It’s more like punched in the uterus, since most of the cuts she is proposing cover prenatal care and birth control.