Boys Need The Burqa On The Bus

Okay, once again, it happens to me, so I have to fix it. It's my place in life. And, since boys don't seem to have any sense, we have to control them every moment. It's not girls who need the burqa, but boys.

Anyway, somebody in Port Angeles has a cute blond kid who slops down into a bus seat with his legs spread, so he touches the other person (yes, we know, men taking up more than their share of space on public transit has already come to the world's notice), and then puts his hand on the seat and fingers start... wandering. 

Women who stab or punch boys get prosecuted. Old ladies who stand up and protest get ridiculed. So - cute boys in Port Angeles, I'm sorry, but you have to either sit by yourselves, or with your friends - or stand up. You can't be allowed to sit with women, or girls, and this is why.

Here we go.  Just sent this email to the listed emails (and if you feel like copying, please do). I get this on the bus again, I'm stopping it, removing the next boy or man, and standing up and giving a lecture on bus manners - first welcoming anybody who wants to film, photo, or Facebook it. And pissing off everybody who is trying to make the Sappho connection. 

And I was called by the supervisor of Clallam Transit, and by the time I was done praising his system and then describing a scenario in which a girl gets finger-played, then a gang of boys get off at her forest stop, and the peer-monkey stupidity - well, let's just say I scared the hell out of the man. He knows it can happen, and a bus is like a hotel - it happens on your watch, you get the lawsuit.

To: mdoherty@co.clallam.wa.us; sheriff@co.clallam.wa.us; cbaron@forksforum.com; mnichols@co.clallam.wa.us; jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com; pahsinfo@portangelesschools.org; john.brewer@peninsuladailynews.com

Subject: Girls and Women under threatDate: Wed, 16 Jul 2014 09:04:07 -0700

"Hello --

As more and more people ride the Clallam County busses, more and more women and girls are going to be exposed to a long-running threat: boys and men who sit down or stand beside them and not only push into the female personal space but begin to grope or handle.

This is an old - and extensive - problem on all public transit, in all cities and towns, worldwide.

Women and girls cannot respond with violence or immediate reporting, because they will be prosecuted and ridiculed.

The Sheriff's office needs to work with the bus system to place advertising-block announcements in the buses, with contact numbers, so a female rider can report abuse in privacy and safety. On-board cameras are expensive, but not as expensive as lawsuits.

The extant posted lists of "unacceptable" behaviors on the busses and at transit stops, while well-thought-out and extensive, does not include prohibition of the man-handling of fellow passengers.

Riders need to be aware that such attacks begin by slow nudging or pushing into the woman's space, and then careful, secret extension of fingers or feet. It can even, among standing males, include touching the female with the crotch.

Please address this problem, as I know our excellent transit and police services, and all our caring public officials, will be eager to do. 

Thank you."

CC To Community Leaders, Sheriff's Office, Transit and School leaders.

Positive Reinforcement.

Okay, time to stop picking on ALL the locals.

The readers of this blog split right down the middle - the ones that want to gut me and take my eyeballs out - and the ones that are cheering, "Go get em! About time SOMEBODY said it!"

But - more and more people up here are getting it. Fishermen are willing to fight to stop catch-and-release. Loggers are beginning to understand careful forest care and the danger of corporations and capitalism. Farmers are making lives better for their animals because their kids are begging them to stop trading off cruelty for profit. Everybody's beginning to realize we CAN have a different future - and whether you believe in an afterlife or not, we have a chance to make heaven or hell right here, where we all are.

People are discovering that being a liberal means being unafraid, all-inclusive, and sharing everything. And the more we share, the more there is. Life should be a party and a journey, not fear and anger. This is a NICE planet - the one we evolved for - and all its creatures should have a chance. 

And... we all know 'em - there's the former bad guys who just want to WIN. And if our side is winning - and folks, just face it, no matter how long it takes, the liberal folks ALWAYS win - there's conversion going on because a lot of Americans just want to be on the winning side.

We CAN be taught.

(And don't come on an start a fight with a liberal, okay? The nice people have learned that it's okay to be pissed off - and not put up with crap. And we're better educated and just plain smarter - and we actually KNOW history, and not some cartoon version of it. We'll embarrass you in public. Don't do that to yourself. Or your family.)

How The Logging Industry Fucks Up

Jeeze. Don't get on me and try to tell me how the logging interests are good for everything (Oh, and don't even TRY the crap of telling me "enviromentalists cause urban sprawl." Not everybody is dumb enough to believe the lies you tell yourselves. 

I'm not BLIND. 

Every town the chop-boys can get near a town with the clearcuts - admitting, in so many words, that the sound of a tree tearing down gets their 'nads all tingly - they take down everything, and then shoot the panicky wildlife that tears into town. They love killing shit for amusement. It gets 'em off.

Old, peaceful, starving bears. Plots to kill starving mom and kid cougar (we saw what you did there). Whatever herbivore that wanders into view.

Whop down the wetland on a nice town road, because you thought you could build a truck-washing station there (that would sit and rot as soon as Rayonier had ripped everything out and moved on). It's amazing your ass wasn't fined. 

And now trying to hit every decent tree in town. WTF? Even the campground shade? If you LIKE deserts, why don't you move to Arizona? Or are you so desperate to squeeze every last dollar out of the place? Whose idea was it that you didn't have enough picnic space in the park? Had to get your hands on that, too, did you?

Well, why not? Clallam Bay had a chance to actually start getting into real tourism and entertainment, and we had just gotten rid of one junk-yard, and some moron comes along and builds an even BIGGER one.

And no doubt thinks he's being an industrial tycoon. These people have junkyard minds.

And junkyard hearts.

P.S. No, capitalism is NOT socialism - eat eat eat eat crash move on is not take out put in take out put in, etc. 

There are no more frontiers. You have to whip down the stick trees to make enough palettes to ship in the shit from China, with its cheap, non-unionized labor. We're not going to Mars, moron. There is no air there. You can't run a planetary atmosphere. You're fucking the one up on the one planet you evolved to fit. 

And it's MINUS 67 degrees on Mars. I don't think you can BRING enough hoodies.

And sitting down and "respectfully" debating with you? I don't respect you. You'll kill me and everything and everybody I love, for a buck and a tingle. I would no more debate economy and environments with you, former high-school hero, than I would debate science with a creationist - or a chemtrailer.

Of course, those "nice, middle-class Americans" you claim are "making everything better" are shoveling their kids into a corporate war for pay. And cheering the war like it was a football game. And crabs-in-a-bucketing every thinking, hopeful, trying kid they can get their hands on. I live here, too. And I'm not deaf, either. The school has lots of football uniforms and a big field - but no arts, music, graphics are dance. So much for YOUR futures.

Logging Camp Whores and Live Trolls

Wow. I got a live troll - spouting the right-wing Facebook arguments, like he was reading it from an online script - complaining that in this blog I'd called the wives of loggers "whores."

My dears, NO feminist would use the word "whore" as an insult for women; sex workers need a union.

Just as no lefty would call a Vietnam vet a "druggie." Please. We've finally gotten on the way to legalizing marijuana.

However - I DID quote a person who fifty years ago was a victim of the logging industry bullies. SHE was the one who called the old gang "Logging Camp Whores." (Well, she IS a church-goin' woman. They DO use the word "whore" as an insult, because that's the way their system works.)

I was just reporting some interesting and spicy language from one of your own abused. Sooner or later, bullies get theirs.

The troll, by the way, admitted he'd been listening to predictions of the end of the world for 50 years. Fifty years we've been trying to tell these morons, and they're bragging about being short-sighted?

Oh, well. I guess they'll just have to feel. How's the weather out where you are?