Walking Upstream

I Haven't Stopped Writing...

2008-05-10T16:20:00.003-05:00

I just moved back home to livejournal. I write more freely there, with my political and philosophical views interspersed with stories of my daily life and family. I find it more fun, and many find it more interesting. I am not closing Writing Upstream, but it's on vacation at least for a bit.

New Job, Imposter Syndrome, and Nothing to Blog

2008-04-08T20:05:00.002-05:00

Okay, so maybe "nothing to blog" is stretching it. To put it mildly, however, I've been in a spin since starting my new job a week ago yesterday. This is the first time I have entered an established group and taken a role as its leader. When I've been a supervisor before, the team was formed at the same time I was hired. I'm discovering it's much, much easier to integrate a team that is all

Apropros of Nothing: Baseball

2008-04-01T08:14:00.003-05:00

Take note: The Kansas City Royals are in first place. This is almost certainly a fluke, as they started the season early and managed to win their first game (against Detroit) in extra innings. However, as the Royals have not won any games to speak of since doping became rampant in Major League Baseball (please note what year the Royals last won the world series) now that there is some minimal

I'm Interrupting my Day Off for a Bit of Gratuitous Snark

2008-03-28T12:15:00.002-05:00

CNN Headline:Bush: Basra fighting a 'defining moment' for IraqMy response: Only if the definition is "clusterfuck".

Personal Finances, Recession, and Cash Flow

2008-03-25T09:46:00.005-05:00

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of silly season. I'm going to blog today about something a little closer to home: Family finances.As I announced a couple of weeks ago, next week I start a shiny new job that will significantly increase my income. This in the midst of worsening recession, I consider myself incredibly fortunate. But. Here's the thing. I leave my current job tomorrow, and

"Typical White Woman", "Angry Black Man", Obama, Wright, and US Racism.

2008-03-24T09:21:00.005-05:00

Hi. I'm a typical white woman. No, really, I am. I walk confidently around some of the blackest parts of Kansas City, but it's not because I'm comfortable around black men I don't know. It's because I know enough of the men I encounter to feel safe. When Obama said that his grandmother was a "typical white woman" in that she had an acculturated fear of black men that sometimes expressed itself,

Well, I was going to post about Obama's fabulous speech today,

2008-03-18T16:26:00.002-05:00

... but tbogg at FireDogLake stole any thunder I thought I might have.Warning: Do not eat or drink anything spittable while reading this post. Crackabloggahs is my new favorite word.

St. Patrick's Day, the Irish, and The Construction of Race in America

2008-03-17T07:30:00.005-05:00

There's an old joke that goes like this: Why are there more Irishmen in America than in Ireland? Answer: Irish Food.My great grandfather on my father's side migrated to North American in the early 1900's, during the last big nativist fear culture, from County Leinster in Ireland. He settled in New York State and worked as a merchant marine. In his twenties, he married a girl from Elmira, New York

Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope: A Review

2008-03-15T12:57:00.004-05:00

I just finished reading The Audacity of Hope, and I have decided I don't want to discuss so much the content of the book as what it reveals about its author. Senator Obama divides his book into not so much chapters as topics, each about one of the broad institutions or core ideas in US Society or the world. These include political parties (Republicans and Democrats), values, the Constitution

News Flash: Barack Obama is a Black Man

2008-03-13T20:33:00.003-05:00

h/t Lawyers, Guns and MoneyAlternate title: Me? I was just calling my dog. You weren't supposed to hear that.BTW, my husband has caught on that "dog whistle" is my new favorite phrase. I pointed out that like "shadenfruede", that lovely German word with no exact English equivalent, it captures a wealth of information in a few short syllables. He just insisted that I like soundbites. I don't

Clinton Campaign Affirmative Action Dog Whistles

2008-03-13T08:10:00.005-05:00

First, watch Keith Olbermann's special commentary:A "special comment" about his Special Comment. Clearly KO is taking this stance reluctantly, and quite possibly personally prefers Hillary to Barack. The passion with which he makes his plea is all the more compelling because it's real.All that said, I don't buy for a second the idea that this was an "out of control" moment in the Clinton

Geraldine Ferraro has Jumped the Shark

2008-03-12T13:11:00.004-05:00

What's worse, some feminists (you know who you are) are excusing Ferraro's blatantly racist statements (a repeat of statements she made over a decade ago about other black political candidates, and expanded upon and defended as she is questioned) as "only what Obama deserves" for "allowing" sexist media coverage. Cluebat: If Obama controlled the media, wouldn't bullshit stories pretending he is

Lack of Imagination and Lie-bertarian Social Fallacies

2008-03-12T07:45:00.004-05:00

Over and over again in arguments on libertarianism on the web, I run across an idea that frankly baffles me. Libertarians argue that the playing field is level, or level enough, and anyone who isn't a "success" has only himself or herself to blame. Invariably, the libertarian making that argument has more than half of the following privileges:Educated in good public or private schools and not

Two Minutes before Midnight

2008-03-11T23:58:00.002-05:00

And I can't sleep. Why? At 3:30 pm today, just as I was getting up from my desk at work to head home, I received a phone call.As of Monday, March 31, I will work as a supervisor in a homeless day center that caters primarily to the mentally ill homeless. I have a lot more power to change systems in this new role, and in addition, I will be getting substantially more money. Yeah, excited is

Blinding Pain

2008-03-11T07:40:00.002-05:00

is making it difficult to focus on political issues. I had a simple replacement filling done yesterday, but while my jaw was numb, apparently some violence was done to my lower left jaw. It feels bruised and swollen and very painful. Now waiting for my dentist's office to open so I can call. This has not been a good week in the universe of homeless services. A long time client died peacefully

Jury Nullification and the War on (Some Classes of People who use Some) Drugs

2008-03-07T07:50:00.002-06:00

Amanda Marcotte has a wonderful article up at Pandagon about the writers of the HBO series The Wire's take on the war on drugs. She quoted from the article in Time Magazine, and I'm reprinting the quote here:But this is what we can do — and what we will do.If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence

Misogyny is Dead. And so is Racism. Really. (Not)

2008-03-06T12:31:00.006-06:00

via (ETA -- Oh crap, wrong article.... here is the original link, but I still can't remember.. Found it! here at Feministe!) comes the story of an Asian American woman who, when threatened by the man next to her on a plane, was then treated as a perpetrator by Southwest Airline employees because she used (calmly and quietly) an expletive in response to the man's threat.She frames her story as

The Post I've Been Avoiding: Homeless With a Credit Card and a College Degree.

2008-03-05T18:51:00.007-06:00

On February 11, 2008, the Christian Science Monitor published a piece called Homeless: Can You Build a Life from $25? about a guy named Adam Shepard, a middle class, college educated white guy with no discernible mental or physical disabilities, a solid foundation in a non-chaotic, educationally enriched, non-toxic environment, and a credit card in his back pocket. Presumably, he also either has

So the Democratic Primary Continues... What's Next?

2008-03-05T08:10:00.002-06:00

I'm not a political pundit -- really I'm not -- but this primary race is so unpredictable that even the professional pundits have a difficult time with predictions, so I figured that it can't hurt to make a couple of my own.1) (tongue in cheek): Either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will win the primary. 2) The one who doesn't win will NOT be chosen as a Vice Presidential candidate.3) Despite

A Little Bit About Privilege

2008-03-04T20:34:00.004-06:00

Heart over at WomensSpace has invited me to participate in the Come Together women's history month blog event, and I wrote the following article for her, which is already up at her blog. Privilege is a big deal to me. It took me a good portion of my life to get from being a "noblesse oblige" liberal to a "roll up the sleeves and work" progressive. This reflects a bit of that journey.The gulf of

Checking the Roots

2008-03-04T12:47:00.002-06:00

I have not yet had a chance to read either of Obama's autobiographies (I'm on the waiting list at my local library), but I've been trying to dig deeper as to why I find him so compelling. In my search I came across this article written back in 1995, before he was even an elected official. I'm still not swooning, despite what many of my feminist sisters say, but I have to say, now I'm even more

Things That I Find Highly Amusing, Part 1 of Infinity

2008-03-04T11:10:00.003-06:00

The boy-geniouses (not!) at the Livejournal community "Conservatism" have taken to calling me "sugarlips" in an effort to silence or embarass me, or both. Wouldn't they like to know how sweet my lips are! Hah. Living female in a patriarchy indeed. Rather than dealing with me on an intellectual level, because they are unable to articulate their objection to me in rational terms, they are

Love and Consequences: The Epitome of White Appropriation in Book Form

2008-03-04T07:34:00.004-06:00

Turns out there was good reason for Love and Consequences by Margaret (Peggy) B. Jones to not be named "Truth and Consequences". There was no truth in it, and Margaret was afraid of the consequences. Turns out Margaret B. Jones, (supposedly half white, half Native American, poverty class) was actually Margaret Seltzer, an all white woman from Sherman Oaks, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles. She

More Primaries Today

2008-03-04T07:25:00.003-06:00

Silly season is getting -- silly -- but that doesn't change the fact that the voters of Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and my birth state of Vermont have the chance today to put their marks on history.So if you're in one of those four places, vote. Even if the weather is crappy, vote. Even if your boss wants you to work overtime and you could use the money, vote. Even if you have to walk three

If Jack Says It, It Must Be True, Right?

2008-03-03T08:07:00.003-06:00

Just watch the video, it's great:(h/t Blue Girl)And no, it doesn't change my preference, but it's still great, and stylish, and innovative.