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April 20, 2011 @ 5:20 p.m.
--After I left the Department of Labor this afternoon, a man who had to be at least 60 saw me and yelled out of the window of his truck "It's gonna get wet!" A lot of people know who I am in this town, they know what's going on, and I have no reason to believe that he was talking about the weather.
It took a long time for it to be established that people leering at other people out of car windows was bad. Why then, has the President of the United States been telling people that it's good?
--When I got to the library today, I saw a small, open-topped plexiglass box that has a note on it saying "Please donate what you can for the library computers."
--A few days ago, I left a couple of voicemails at the New York Times asking the newspaper not to see my parents as monsters. I said that my family had issues, but that the things that had driven us apart for years were the stigma of my having gotten psychiatric treatment as a late teen and my inability to move on from that stigma in Vermont, and also the pharmaceutical industry's succeeding aim to falsely diagnose and inappropriately medicate all living beings.
Although my family always had problems, mostly with anger issues, I was a normal teenager. I had good friends in high school, I got good grades. I wasn't wild but I don't think that I was especially uptight.
It took me a long time to get my first boyfriend, but I think that had more to do with my being a year younger than everyone else in my class than with my having emotional problems. I didn't need a bra of any kind until my sophomore year, and even so I would say that the word "need" is a moderate exaggeration.
My parents are the reason that the idea of dating men for their money or for any other reason than liking them is nauseating to me. My parents are the reason that I got grades and succeeded at other activities because I liked achievement. My father is the reason that I never wore makeup at all until my early 20's and even then I hardly wore any. I still hardly ever wear any makeup even when I wear it. It's true that I have more acne now than I did as a teenager, but much of that is probably due to my fondness for sugar over things such as salad and to the fact that I never have the money to take care of myself in the way that I would prefer.
My parents are a reason that I care about other people. They're not the total reason for that, but they are part of it. My parents are the reason that I recognize the value of music, art and books. They are the reason that, although I said nothing to anyone about politics in my life before the past year and a half, and despite my lack of formal education in things such as politics and business, I am sometimes capable of accurately analyzing political situations.
My parents are the reason for a lot of things that make me a good person when I'm able to be a good person. What they did last fall was terrible and I don't know when I will want to speak to them again if I don't have to. But I know that they didn't bring me into the world with the intention of hurting me.
--Is the United States going to make sure that the rebels win in Libya or is the President going to abandon those people in their quest for freedom?
I'm wondering if the reason that much of the media has been against the rebels and against the establishment of democracy not just in Libya but in other places is that the media is in partnership with if not dominated by corporations. If the media in totalitarian countries is dominated by the government, then it seems to me that the media in countries which are supposed to be democracies runs the risk of being a tool of corporations.
Corporations can cut their costs a lot by doing business with dictators rather than with leaders of democracies. Dictators can keep minimum wage minimal, can scoff at the idea of even making a pretense at healthy, fair working conditions and benefits, can easily stamp out things such as unions--in short, corporations can do a lot in countries run by dictators that those countries can't do in places such as the U.S..
Time's up here.
April 20, 2011 @ 5:20 p.m.
--After I left the Department of Labor this afternoon, a man who had to be at least 60 saw me and yelled out of the window of his truck "It's gonna get wet!" A lot of people know who I am in this town, they know what's going on, and I have no reason to believe that he was talking about the weather.
It took a long time for it to be established that people leering at other people out of car windows was bad. Why then, has the President of the United States been telling people that it's good?
--When I got to the library today, I saw a small, open-topped plexiglass box that has a note on it saying "Please donate what you can for the library computers."
--A few days ago, I left a couple of voicemails at the New York Times asking the newspaper not to see my parents as monsters. I said that my family had issues, but that the things that had driven us apart for years were the stigma of my having gotten psychiatric treatment as a late teen and my inability to move on from that stigma in Vermont, and also the pharmaceutical industry's succeeding aim to falsely diagnose and inappropriately medicate all living beings.
Although my family always had problems, mostly with anger issues, I was a normal teenager. I had good friends in high school, I got good grades. I wasn't wild but I don't think that I was especially uptight.
It took me a long time to get my first boyfriend, but I think that had more to do with my being a year younger than everyone else in my class than with my having emotional problems. I didn't need a bra of any kind until my sophomore year, and even so I would say that the word "need" is a moderate exaggeration.
My parents are the reason that the idea of dating men for their money or for any other reason than liking them is nauseating to me. My parents are the reason that I got grades and succeeded at other activities because I liked achievement. My father is the reason that I never wore makeup at all until my early 20's and even then I hardly wore any. I still hardly ever wear any makeup even when I wear it. It's true that I have more acne now than I did as a teenager, but much of that is probably due to my fondness for sugar over things such as salad and to the fact that I never have the money to take care of myself in the way that I would prefer.
My parents are a reason that I care about other people. They're not the total reason for that, but they are part of it. My parents are the reason that I recognize the value of music, art and books. They are the reason that, although I said nothing to anyone about politics in my life before the past year and a half, and despite my lack of formal education in things such as politics and business, I am sometimes capable of accurately analyzing political situations.
My parents are the reason for a lot of things that make me a good person when I'm able to be a good person. What they did last fall was terrible and I don't know when I will want to speak to them again if I don't have to. But I know that they didn't bring me into the world with the intention of hurting me.
--Is the United States going to make sure that the rebels win in Libya or is the President going to abandon those people in their quest for freedom?
I'm wondering if the reason that much of the media has been against the rebels and against the establishment of democracy not just in Libya but in other places is that the media is in partnership with if not dominated by corporations. If the media in totalitarian countries is dominated by the government, then it seems to me that the media in countries which are supposed to be democracies runs the risk of being a tool of corporations.
Corporations can cut their costs a lot by doing business with dictators rather than with leaders of democracies. Dictators can keep minimum wage minimal, can scoff at the idea of even making a pretense at healthy, fair working conditions and benefits, can easily stamp out things such as unions--in short, corporations can do a lot in countries run by dictators that those countries can't do in places such as the U.S..
Time's up here.