Today is a Day for Ranting...

Calvin & Hobbes, always fitting for my mood!
 I hope I can make a snow army when I am home...

It is officially December so I feel obligated to release my inner child and skip for the next 25 days while whistling any number of Christmas songs to myself...Shortly after I accepted this unavoidable truth, I stumbled across a link about why the 90s were just so special as a child. It has everything that was near and dear to my heart listed, including something I am still bitter about, I never had a Tamagotchi.  I remember my years in first and second grade, all of my friends would whip out their keychain Tamagotchis in the hallway, at recess, in art and music, at lunch, ALL THE DAMN TIME! And I never had one...I never let my cyberpet poops itself to death. I was so deprived. And in case you read the article and are wondering who I liked better, I was a BB girl. In fact, I used to insult Justin Timberlake on the playground, ha!


While perusing Facebook for other mindless articles I stumbled across something worth while!  Mind you, I did not learn anything new or have an epiphany, but I watched a very concise and powerful speech for marriage equality.  I have nothing to say on the marriage equality "debate" because it is not even a debate in my mind. You wanna get married? Go ahead...the real debate is whether the entire institution of marriage is even worthwhile...yup, I opened up that can of worms.  What can you expect? When you have interacted with as much feminist theory as I have, you cannot turn a blind eye to an entire institution that is inegalitarian and has more benefits for men than women, I do not care what country you are in. (You can probably find a few textbook examples as counterarguments...if you do that much research to disprove me, open up some JB to really make your brain spin). Gah! Either way, here is the video...

I just have so much to say today! Today is World AIDS Day, something that I hope everyone is thinking about.  YouTube certainly was prepared for the day when I signed in to look up the video I just referenced in my last paragraph, and then ONE Campaign had to go and make me really mad.  The following video popped up on my sidebar:

Before you write me off as being crazy, watch the video.  Notice anything? Everyone is the video is AFRICAN! So if I were ignorant, as so many people are, I would assume that this is an African problem.  Thanks ONE Campaign, you really enlightened me today.  Let's not discuss that this is a growing problem in the US.  Let's just focus on a population that always takes the burden as war-stricken, the center of the AIDS epidemic, the ONE Campaign even snuck in a starving African baby. I am seriously pissed off! I am not saying to ignore problems that exist, but I am saying, show the whole picture.  If you type "AIDS a growing problem in" on your google browser, the first ten articles on google will mention five of the seven continents...the five continents that are heavily populated. I just get so frustrated with these campaigns, which in theory are great, but in practice categorize and stigmatize certain groups of people.

I also got so upset by this video because of the language it chose to use..."AIDS is preventable and treatable" (with music similar to that of a Viagra commercial in the background).  So let's say that I am one of the approximately 70% of pre-college teens that has sex.  Let's say that I have an abstinence-only sex ed program in my school that does not teach me about how serious STDs actually are, but the immorality of sex before marriage.  I am on the pill because I told my mom I have "really really bad cramps," when in reality I just do not want to get pregnant. I have a healthy relationship with a guy I like, he does not realize he may have HIV or AIDS, and I sleep with him.  Why would we use a condom? I am on the pill I cannot get pregnant.  AIDS? Well, that is not a huge deal anymore, this is not the 1980s and I am not gay. And one more thing, my new love interest is white, so he obviously would not have AIDS, I mean, that is what they always show on the TV... and if something awful were to happen, AIDS is treatable. See where I am going? Keeping the population ignorant is not going to help anything, it only makes matters worse.  Give us facts/opinions/solutions/information, or quite literally, give us death.

This is also a good time to squeeze in the link for the NYT article that came out about two weeks ago, Quaker schools represent! "Teaching Good Sex"

Inspired by David and his talk of piglets :)

After all of that ranting, this blog needs a bit of cuddliness to redeem itself :P  


To go along with the piglets I will share a link to "The 56 best/worst analogies written by high school students"...an example you say? Okay! 
"Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." <- Fun fact: I have an exquisitely refined artistic sense!


Also, I have a VISA, HOORAY!