of the elizabitchez broadcasting system

of the multiple feed posting options to twitter and facebook. Did it work?

So I have a twitter and a facebook account that are rarely updated because I am mucho lazy and can’t be assed to update 3 different things twitter, blogger, facebook) all the time.

Is there an app of some kind that will link the 3 together so that whenever I put up a new post here, a link is created there?

And because Pearl Jam always makes me think of Skip james, here’s a Monday morning present for any of you all who are feeling a bit hung over and or bruised by the weekend

is way too good to disappear into the shared items in the reader.

One of the biggest problems of lefty theory is that it is often seen as solely a critique without alternatives. Shit, even I’m guilty of it. But that’s one of the reasons I play Queen for a day, it gets me to imagine the possibility of a better world.

From this piece, I’ve just had my brain boggled by the idea of imagining a world where credit is democratic. What if everyone got access to a reasonable loan to own a home, or start a business, or shit, just was able to have a checking account? (Lack of checking accounts is a HUGE problem among the poor, the better off of you all might not realize that those of us on the poor end get our accounts closed for being overdrawn and then have to wait 5+ years before you can open another one. We’re called the Unbanked- I’m sure it’s google-able).

My brain is whirling at the idea of a world without overdraft charges that are more than you spend on groceries. What if everyone was guaranteed a low interest rate home loan for a specific amount (say the average home price for a home big enough or small enough for your household in your area) that kept all housing costs under a specific percentage of your income? Rich people could still buy ridiculous houses, but they’d have to do it with their own cash, and poor people wouldn’t be relegated to slums or exurbs only. What if we mandated living wages and eliminated consumer debt? With the wages people wouldn’t have to go into hawk every month using credit cards to pay basic living expenses, and paychecks would go back into the production (industry) side of the economy instead of to the speculative side in the form of credit card payments.

What if credit was not a hierarchial system? Perhaps then the wealth gap between races and sexes would not be so grand, but the “deserving” white folks with their good credit scores might have to give up a wee bit of paternalism towards those of us who they keep trying to teach middle class values to. But in the end it would benefit all of us (well all meaning everybody not stealing, I mean earning a fat paycheck in the banking industry).

Well, not really, it’s on in the background. But I am remembering just how fucking hot Eddie Vedder is. Damn. I may be officially old (well not for another few days, then I am officially old) but Eddie Vedder still makes me squee.

ETA: I knew there was an unplugged video where Vedder writes PROCHOICE on his arm in sharpie during the middle of the song. It just took me a minute to find it.

Pearl Jam, more than any other band of the era, was what got me through the worst part of my childhood, the year my mom went into the mental hospital and I went to live with foster parents. I borrowed Ten from a cute boy (on tape even). Before that, the only music I knew that wasn’t bubble gum crap that had no relation to my actual life was “alternative” music from the 80’s (my first ever concert was the Cure, for example). Listening to Pearl Jam was like that super satisfying moment where a scab falls off and you can see the new pink scar underneath. Vedder wrote about bullying and horrid parents and not exactly believing in god. The songs hold up well 20 years later (while I pretty much can’t listen to anything the Cure did after Boys Don’t Cry and Depeche Mode, well we won’t go there).

BTW, I loved Just Breathe, the song I just watched them performed on SNL.

15 years ago today, the Kid showed up in the world, late (by ten days) after having lived a warm and comfy life swimming around in my belly and eating second hand pickles and chocolate chip cookies.

He’s the best thing that ever happened to me, this adorable ball of love and unshakable sweetness who I am so lucky to know. The Kid taught me that if it was okay for me to stand up for him to the cruelties of the world, it was just as okay to stand up for myself. He is unshakable in his kindness, which is not something i see in a lot of grown ups (or other kids for that matter) and he is undeniably himself.

He is a proud feminist boy. He is brilliant and thoughtful and geeky and perfect. And he made a deal with me about a year and a half ago that involved him giving up all teenage angst behavior at the age of 15 (Auntie says- yeah right, my kids are in their 30s and I still get that shit. She thinks I might be a bit delusional). But he’s not really all that angsty. He’s just himself, the Kid, who occasionally rolls his eyes at me but is way more likely to offer a hug.

In the last year he’s grown taller than me. He likes to stand as close to me as he can and go “haha, taller than you”.

The Kid has his own (sometimes frustrating) timeframe for doing things (see 10 fricken days late! 10! and only came out then because of a c-section).

He is the best person I know, and he’s only 15. I cannot wait to see what marvelous things he does and thinks in the world.

But yes, I think this officially means I am OLD. OLD OLD OLD.

I love you punkin munkin, tater tot, sir rotten monkey, stinkerbell Mr. Potatey. Happy birthday and thanks for letting me watch you turn into such an awesome human being.

First- go read this about a blogger who is losing her house on Monday. Yes, Monday. Her, her husband, and her 3 teenage kids are going to lose the only house the kids have ever known.

That all totally sucks, but it is worse. The bank that refi’d their house, IndyMac, is the same bank that caused runs on their ATMs about 2 years ago. The FDIC had to bail its ass out.

Are you all feeling the hopey change yet? I, for one, am not actually happy to be welcoming more people into my little homeless corner of the world. Not because I don’t welcome the company, but because I am real fucking familiar with the untethered chaos that comes from financial instability. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, except for the banksters themselves.

Me: I want soup

Kid: What kind of soup

Me: noodle soup, like pho

Kid: I miss pho

Me: we could make it. It’s just rice noodles and broth and slices o’ meat

Kid: And the extras, don’t forget the extras

Me: like thai basil and cilantro and lime and hot sauce

Kid: BEAN SPROUTS! DON’T FORGET THE BEAN SPROUTS! They’re my favorite part.

Me (to the tune of SirMixalot’s Baby got back, complete with silly dance moves) I like bean sprouts and I cannot lie. You other brothers can’t deny!

(ftr- Seattle is lousy with pho soup places. The best place to eat out if you’ve only got a few bucks is any of the Than Brothers places. You get a giant bowl of soup, bigger than your head, and cream puffs for under 5 bucks. OH and vietnamese coffee is pretty fucking rad too)

You know, it gives me no fucking joy to have been right all through primary season about the blogger boys and their douchebaggery. It might give me joy if people figured it out and Markos Moulitas now had as much influence over politics as I do.

Over at Corrente they are talking about the possibility of violent uprising when you have large groups of angry young men. You should all go read the comments, they are very illuminating.

When you’ve done that- read the follow up.

I’ve actually read a lot about this stuff, being that my 8 year old pretty princess dream involved both a tiara and a bandolier of bullets. So here’s my 5 cents.

1) Angry young men are good at destruction, but no so good at the reconstruction. They can be a useful tool, but you better have a pretty damn short leash or everyone gets the guillotine.

2) When women get involved, there is always a back up force, if you will, when the menfolk (inevitably) all get arrested. This is how the Irish Revolution was able to carry on after everyone at the Dublin Post office got arrested and most were summarily executed. Their wives, sisters, etc, continued recruiting, organizing and gun running.

3) Progressives should never ever ever make a pact with slightly less heinous neolibs to form a revolution. It will not work. Period. Back to the irish- if you ever need some inspiration go read about James Connolly.He was a socialist and a republican (in the Irish sense, which means a democrat). He was executed after the Easter Rising without a trial. There were those in the revolution who just wanted England out but were otherwise okay with the abject poverty of their fellow citizens, and there were those who wanted England out and for Ireland to be not just free but fair. Connolly and his ilk were of the latter breed.

England, not wanting to lose their financial interests in Ireland, gave the neolibs a choice, sell out the the socialists and Northern Ireland, and well let you go. Eammon De Velara saw which way the wind was blowing and set up Michael Collins to make the devil’s deal, which led to civil war between the socialists and those against partition, and the neo lib, pro treaty people.

It’s 88 years later. Northern Ireland is still British, and while Ireland has a better social system than the US, it ain’t no Sweden. I think it might even have a worse social system than England, which is why Northern Catholics stayed put. They got more money on the dole there than they would in the republic.

We cannot, whether it is in elections or revolutions, muddy justice by allying ourselves with those who would throw us under the bus. It never works.

4) The best non-violent protest are those with a purpose. Sit in and marches are all lovely ways of meeting like minded people, but real change only comes from real disobedience that proves the ridiculousness of the current system of law. Think about Ghandi walking to the sea to make salt, or Rosa parks taking a seat on a bus. Protests should be pragmatic. This is why I am in awe of the people who can afford to pay their upside down mortgages but are choosing to default anyways. And priests who advise their poor hungry congregants to steal from megastores. Protest must be pragmatic. It should produce an image in the minds of the watchers that strikes the very core of justice. They should see it and go “why the fuck would anyone be against (whatever activity you are attempting)”.

5) When revolutions happen, the people with the guns win before the people with the ideas get a chance to get started. Seriously folks. Take a look around. It’s the fricken teabaggers who are going too blow violently first. Do you really want them to be the ones running the country? Then perhaps we need to do more than just talk about things. Am I saying we should all go out and arm ourselves? Well I’ll leave that to each of you individually. But it might be a really good time to remind those in power that our way will cost them dollars and power , but the teabaggers way will cost them their heads.

6) OMG- are we really talking about this? I mean not in an abstract “I wish” kind of way but in the “it’s just a matter of time till someone forms a militia kind of way. Peeps, I am thinking the Chinese proverb, may you live in interesting times.