So Renee is doing this pay it forward thing

With blog awards and chose my blog as one of her favorite.

Trouble is I am now supposed to list my favorite blogs and promote them, I don't have any. That weren't already listed in Renee's blog, so um... I've got nothing.

On that note I would like to take this opportunity to make a political statement during my acceptance speech.

Republican's who are holding middle class tax breaks hostage are idiots.

1. It's not new taxes, or a tax increase on the wealthiest two percent of American it is an end to an outrageously detrimental tax break set by the Bush league.

2. Trickle down economics does not work.

3. The people who are receiving these tax breaks are not the people who create "small business".

4. Paris Hilton has nothing to do with "small business", but I bet her trust fund creates so much interest that she is required to pay taxes on it. IE. her savings account creates more revenue than a "small business".

5. We are talking about take home pay not what revenues a business creates, those are separate tax laws.

6. Rich people have enough tax write off's that an increase in the base that they pay probably will not amount to much.

7. Rich people have accountants and tax lawyers whose jobs are to find ways to avoid paying taxes. How about instead of paying all that money to these people you pay your f***ing taxes and all of our Grandmothers who worked in factories while our Grandfathers were away at war to support our country can get their diabetes medication and pay their electric bill. Just a thought.

OK I'm done.

Oh except, "No new taxes on nobody", is neither good grammar or good economics.

What is guaranteed to you make you happy on a trip to Disneyland?

 Not backing down and paying off the media hungry woman who just realized that being an American means you can sue corporations for false persecution. She signed a contract which nullified her right to sue your company for not being in compliance with the dress code. If anything you can counter-sue this woman for damages to the Disney name.

Rob Reiner's an a-hole?

So I made the unfortunate mistake of scanning AM radio to try and find traffic information when 1070 let me down. I stumbled upon AM 640 and oh holy Jesus was it the wrong day to listen to that right wing republican bigotry. Tim Conway Jr.'s intelligence and incite into modern American politics and social policy.

Prop 8 was over turned today. Therefore the American people and their votes have just been attacked proving that the Federal government is trying to control our lives because nothing says that Gay marriage should exist.

His guest from the Alliance Defense Fund Doug something, frankly Tim slurred his name and I wasn't entirely sure what he said, his name may not even be Doug something, anyway the ADF guy decreed that marriage is ordained by god to be between a man and a woman and that studies have proven that what is best for the children is to raise them in a stable home with a mother and father. That to allow gay marriage is tantamount to signing away the rights of the child and setting them up for destruction.

First of all ADF is a Christian conservative right wing organization. The three areas listed on their home page is religious freedom, sanctity of human life and family values.

As far as I am concerned anyone can believe in anything they want, as long as they don't use their faith to persecute others ADF I'm talking to you, a woman has a right to choose, and your family is what you make it.

If the Ozzie and Harriet theory of family was so great then why are their serial killers and homosexuals now? No I am not saying that homosexuals are evil like serial killers, but these people tend to think that the "homosexual lifestyle" and its promotion by "the liberal media" are committing crimes against America, so I am going to take the analogy to the extreme.

Here is something for those right wingers to think about. You know your "ideal" family? It made all of the liberals and the homosexuals you are afraid of now. So suck on that.

This man literally said, "The government is responsible for implementing social policy, and to endorse gay marriage is to support something bad, not the good ideal family."

Tim Conway Jr. agreed with this man, but his first question was not really about Gay marriage but what his opinion of Rob Reiner was.

Rob Reiner said, "Everyone knows or is related to someone gay. That to look that person in the eye and tell them they do not deserve the same rights you would have to be a pretty cold hearted person."

Tim decided that Rob was calling all supporters of traditional marriage cold hearted, and then decreed that even though Rob is a family friend that he is an A-hole. He called him an A-hole about ten times before I stopped listening.

The next commercial break Tim did a promo for a debt consolidation law firm that would keep the "cold hearted" banks from harassing you. In the promo nearly every other sentence has a "cold hearted banks" plug in it.

Apparently Tim can call the banks cold hearted for trying to get back their money, but Rob Reiner is an A-hole for saying people who can look their "loved ones" in the eye and persecute them are cold hearted.

The next commercial break featured an auto painting company, where Tim made fun of his wife's driving saying that she runs into poles all the time so he loves this company because they fixed his car so well. The whole advertisement was riddled with misogynistic jabs at his wife ending with the declaration, "Deadbeats have dents in their car. I know first hand how hard it is to get women with a bad car."

Frankly Tim Conway Jr. is an ASSHOLE.

Huzzah for the internet that I can say ASSHOLE instead of A-hole.

Rob Reiner my heterosexual female fag hag hat is off to you. Tim Conway Jr. I hope you die in a fire while being harassed on your cell phone by one of those cold hearted banks for reneging on your debt to fix that dent in your car because you were so concerned about being able to get a woman while stepping out on your wife.

I'm a terrible American

So as I read this right wing slant on mandatory service proposals one line struck out at me and all I could think of was South Park and operation get behind the darkies.

This picture blanketed my mind and I could not let it go. The image of Sarah Palin strapped to the front of a tank like a ships mermaid as the Fox News Corp lined a dank and muddy World War II trench. Complaining of trench foot, and the horrible food they were subjected to by their MRE's.  Their mouths salivating as they thought of expensive caviar and foie gras as a nuclear warhead penetrates their consciousness Bill O'Reilly declares, "Well, guess I should have seen that one coming."

I personally don't think there is anything wrong with mandatory service, if it just means you hold a government job for two years. Frankly I've already done that. Most people probably have worked for the government at one time or another and may not have realized it. If you have ever been a summer camp counselor for a city park you have worked for the government. If you've ever been a poll worker for an election, you've worked for the government. I think the fear of going to war is the reason people are afraid of this notion, but the reality is if you have never worked in an industry how can you possibly understand it.

When I first started acting in Hollywood I put my hand in everything. I did PA work, I did wardrobe, I interned at an agency, did casting director workshops, assisted in casting session you name it I did it, because I needed to know all aspects of my industry in order to be successful in it.

People constantly complain about government and the way things are run without having any knowledge of bureaucracy.  The process is almost unbearable, it is slow and it is ridiculous. Everyone feels like they need to put their stamp on every little thing, to feel important and there are institutions within the institution to protect employees from retaliation, discrimination and themselves. The problem is that while honest hard working employees can benefit from these services there are just as many or more employees that utilize these systems to obtain job security and make it nearly impossible to fire them. When I worked for LA Parks and rec we had people who blatantly abused the system and it would take years to get rid of them. Policy is the same way, if not worse because their are lobbyists and special interests groups who will fight against or for policies that don't benefit them.

It seems to me that if more people worked for the government or at least had a summer internship they would understand what they were fighting for or against. It tends to be those who have no working knowledge of the system that are its biggest detractors, and those who I would classify as greedy, money hungry capitalists that tend to hate anything that resembles socialism or communism. The reality is that capitalism doesn't work, and communism doesn't work. Capitalism creates two distinct classes the haves and the have-nots, and the longer this system continues the broader the space between the two becomes. Communism on the other hand requires that the world is not populated with self-serving assholes, which any of VH1's reality programming will show you that is not the case.

Soap box, retired.

The Never Ending Struggle

The following is what happens when I get a broad topic for an essay exam:

The struggle for equality has been one marred by violence, economic and social strife. African Americans, women and immigrants have undergone similar road blocks on the road to equality they definitely did not take the same road. While women’s liberation and the Civil Rights Movement are the most well known societal campaigns the plight of the immigrant tends to shift from enemy to enemy depending on what war is on.

For the Great Depression era that war was on the economy. In 1929 the immigrants on the receiving end of the oppression stick was Mexicans. “The government effectively ended legal immigration from Mexico for the duration of the Depression to protect jobs for American citizens” (Keene, 672). By promoting a government program that included a government funded trip home coupled with deportation “approximately 415,000 Mexicans left the United States during the 1930’s” (Keene, 672). With almost a half million workers deleted from the workforce, New Deal programs and World War Two created industry, the United States successfully recovered from the fiscal fiasco known as the Great Depression.

In the earlier part of the 1920’s with the adoption of women’s suffrage came a new vision of the ideal woman in the Fisher girl. With new found political power women now had the opportunity to have their voices heard in Washington. Unfortunately most women tended to vote with their husbands rather than for issue traditionally associated with women. While the flappers were alive and well within the counter culture mainstream society adopted a new vision of the modern woman as the Fisher girl. Demanding a long and lanky physique the Fisher girl refocused women from their new found freedom and made them slaves to their diet. “According to a 1928 study, only 17 percent of American women were both slender and over 5 feet 3 inches tall” (Keene, 645). This new model of the perfect woman would later influence the feminist movement.

In addition to the new found body image Margaret Sanger began the fight for female reproductive rights. Sanger believed that “too many children… ruined women’s health and relegated them to the ranks of the poor” (Keene, 646). By opening the first American birth control clinic Sanger hoped to save women from unwanted pregnancies. Due to the 1873 Comstock Act which prohibited the distribution of pornography and information on contraception and birth control Sanger was arrested. Not willing to be silenced following her arrest Sanger appeared with a gag in protest of her government sanctioned silence. Throughout Sanger’s life she worked to change societal attitudes toward birth control.

As America moved into World War Two the bombing of Pearl Harbor put a new face on the dangerous immigrant, one of Japanese descent. While there had always been tension between Anglo Saxons and Japanese in California and the West Coast it was not until the United States entered the war that the racism became government sanctioned. Like the infringement upon women, deeming them second class citizens, the repatriation of Mexicans and the enslavement of the Africans before them, the Japanese were now second class citizens forced to give up the free way of life they had come to America for in exchange for internment camps. For those citizens who could not tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese immigrants Life magazine provided the answer in their article “How to Tell Japs from the Chinese”, Japs being a derogatory term for the Japanese (Keene, 893). While this national publication offered stereotypical instructions West Coast Japanese were sent into the internment camps with seven days to liquidate their assets. It was clear the national fear was now focused on the Japanese immigrant.

While the immigrants were being corralled away women found a boost in their level of freedom. The men were away at war and someone needed to fill the positions left at home. Many job opportunities not afforded to women in peace time became accessible during World War Two. But “as the war drew to a close” government propaganda urged women to resume “traditional roles as homemakers” (Keene, 697). Although women had to fight to maintain the freedoms allotted them during times of war they were not the only minority group to find temporary advancement.

While women attained levels of employment never before available to them initially many African Americans found themselves the victims of racial prejudice. Many “wartime industries refused to hire blacks” it was not until FDR was pressured by A. Phillip Randolph and the threat of a march on Washington that an executive order was signed “that forbade discrimination in the defense industry”, opening the employment door to African Americans (Keene, 699). Many civil rights activists wanted to use World War Two “to promote a ‘double-victory campaign’ against both the fascism overseas and racial prejudice at home”, hoping to create “an egalitarian and color-blind society”, however old habits die hard and every step forward was met with an iron fist hitting back (Keene, 699).

The separate but unequal policies that had allowed southern racism to legally continue through segregation had reached its limit by the 1950’s. In a post World War era, with the economy in full swing the Civil Rights Movement came to the forefront of American culture. The case Brown v. Board of Education deemed that segregated schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment, another step toward equality (Keene, 766). Not a year later the Emmett Till murder showcased another aspect of inequality as the evidence was overlooked by the jury and the white murders were acquitted then paid for an interview in which they confessed to the murder (Keene, 767). The frustration, disgust and rage at a failed system catalyzed a new generation of activists.

Where civil war had been the previous route to change the Civil Rights Movement adopted a policy of non-violence. Stemming from the churches the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLCC) was created with their leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This organization provided a dogma as well as organizational skills to structure the movement. With the implementation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC, the movement for the first time had the youthful exuberance of an energized educated student body with the grace and wisdom of experienced civic leaders. Images like those from Birmingham in 1963 only helped to elicit sympathy by showing the police officers as violent bullies and black students as their helpless victims (Keene, 822-823). This publicity nightmare helped bring attention to the Civil Rights Movement.

In the mid 1960’s female activists joined the women’s movement. Betty Friedan reinvigorated the failed women’s movement of the 1920’s with her treatise the Feminine Mystique, and founding the National Organization for Women or NOW (Keene, 834). It was NOW that “convinced President Johnson to issue an executive order that required government agencies and federal contractors to create affirmative action programs to hire and promote women and minority men”, focusing on advancement through legislation (Keene, 834). However as radical feminists took over, the movement seemed to be one only of white middle class women. “Few black women joined the women’s movement, convinced that racial oppression affected them more severely than sexual discrimination”, asserting that for the time being there were “bigger fish to fry” (Keene, 834).

With the loss of Dr. King the Civil Rights Movement lost momentum. In its wake campaigns for Mexican American and Native American social equality arose. The Mexican and Native American’s became the new targets for “factionalism and police harassment” (Keene, 837).As the Civil Rights Movement had Dr. King, Mexican immigrants had Cesar Chavez, the head of the United Farm Workers union. Chavez “used strikes and marches to secure better working and living conditions” and “appealed directly to consumers convincing seventeen million Americans to stop buying nonunion-picked grapes” to improve the quality of life for many Mexican immigrant farm workers (Keene, 838).

While Mexican Americans unionized Native Americans satirized. On November 20, 1969 Indian activists issued the Alcatraz Proclamation, which pointedly presented centuries of injustice that Native American’s had endured (Keene, 839). The Native American movement did not seek out equality or change through legislature and case law like the Civil Rights and women’s movements, or through boycotts like Montgomery Bus, SNCC and Chavez but with protests like Dr. King’s march on Washington. These elaborate and highly visible protests are what led Nixon “to increase funds for social services on Indian reservations and establish the Office of Indian Water Rights” (Keene, 839). It was through civil unrest that most campaigns for social justice found success.

As the debate raged on into the 1970’s women’s liberation seemed to be the only battle unwillingly to die. Gloria Steinem argued that women’s liberation was good for all Americans, while Phyllis Schlafly proclaimed the “Positive Woman” as the ideal by embracing her “distinctly female role” (Keene, 860). With these two opposing views that of progression versus traditionalism, gender roles and reproductive rights were at the foreground of the debate. “The Supreme Court dealt the feminist movement a stunning victory when it legalized abortion in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision” (Keene, 861). Although abortion and reproductive rights have been legal for nearly forty years the debate rages on.

While the Civil Rights Movement, women’s liberation or the rights of immigrants have many differences each of their success is still undetermined. Equality in America is a fight that seems to have no end, with every step forward we see another group arise as the disenfranchised minority. One need not look farther into history than November 8, 2008 to see this is true. On that night Americans chose a black president and on that night three hateful propositions were signed into law against homosexuals. As fear and ignorance led white supremacists to lynching fear and ignorance led the citizens of California to ban gay marriage. The struggles share the same heart but the battles have not been won until all citizens are treated equally under the law.

Review versus Critique

Reviews can be posted by anyone where as a critique requires someone to be an expert in the field in order to claim that title. That being said I hate reviewers. They tend to be long winded uninformed and claim to know what they are talking about. The common person can not tell the difference between a reviewer or a critic so as an artist your work is constantly subjected to scrutiny by laymen who are bored and do not have anything better to do than bitch about things they do not like, understand or are jealous of.

Recently a story I wrote last year has come under attack by one such reviewer. I normally would not respond to this type of criticism but it just seems to be a sign of the times. The reviewer is an 18 year old boy in Alabama who didn't like a story I wrote because he thought it was inappropriate and should never have been written. Granted the story is provocative and it is controversial but there is a huge difference between saying I don't like something and it does not deserve to exist. That I have somehow brought a perversion into the world.

Frankly I like the story, a lot of people seem to like the story. It's not perfect. It can use work I will be the first to admit that, but it was good enough to get published. The reality with art is that you are never done. You can always go back and change things if you choose to. The problem with that is if you never leave it alone and say it is good enough you will never produce anything.

I used the Twilight series as a symbol for bad writing. I used Stephenie Meyer as a character in the story without ever saying yes this is Stephenie Meyer, I named the character Stephenie and alluded to her with character traits and exposition. This became a horrible thing because I used an actual person in a fictional story. Oh dear God the world is coming to an end. The thing this reviewer did not pick up on that a critic may have is that the other character was Stephen King who was recreating a scene from Misery.

The well of ideas is only so deep. There are no original ideas. It is what you do with the idea your voice your take on it that makes the story your own and interesting and new. What is ironic is that the piece was about bad art and censorship. And so a piece about bad art and censorship has elicited a response from a reviewer that declares the piece bad art and demand its censorship.

Perhaps this reader got the concept more than he realized. To the point where it required him to subconsciously act out against the piece. Um... I guess it was a good story then.

Tea Bagging in America

OK, so I am going to be really really political right now. Tea baggers can suck it. I don't mean guys who put their nuts on your chin, I mean the Tea Party, the people who think that government is out of control and want lower taxes and small government.  The argument is never about the size of government the argument is about what type of government.

Now I don't like the idea of bailing out the banks and motor industry simply because I think it rewards failure. But I do realize that without the banks or the motor industry the economy would have collapsed. The harsh reality is that, particularly with the banks, we are in a recession made by private sector capitalist greed. Sadly I believe that it can all be traced back to the housing boom. People were buying homes for $500,000.00 and getting 80/20 loans. So with no money down, taking on two mortgages, people who were just so excited to be living the American dream of homeownership got in over their heads. Then the artificially high market value collapsed. Couple that with variable rate mortgages, and you are paying $5,000.00 a month in interest and maybe $1,000.00 on your principal balance. While the banks got richer without having to do any work, as long as people made their mortgage payments, anyone with this kind of a loan became impoverished. When the savings went, and they couldn't get another loan to cover the mortgage, or refinance, coupled with the fact that their $500,000.00 home's current market value is $350,000.00 or less, people started to short sale their homes. But with the influx of short sales came foreclosures. In the case of a short sale or a foreclosure the lending agent takes on a loss. This loss was of their own design by offering loans that no one could afford, by abandoning tried and true business and lending practices in order to make a quick buck. Those that got in while the getting was good made a lot of money and retired. Hopefully their retirement fund wasn't in the stock market.

As the banks took on more debt, they were afraid to lend out money, this directly effected small businesses who need short term loans to cover the cost of their overhead. If mom and pop borrow ten thousand dollars from the bank to buy products from big business to sell to next door neighbor, and the bank won't lend them the ten thousand dollars. Then mom and pop goes under, and big business losses another one of its clients. Trickle down economics doesn't really work, but in today's economy the shit rolls uphill. Hence the bank and motor company bailout.

America used to be the car manufacturers, mostly because Japanese and German car factories were bombed in world war two. With that being said, most people now have Japanese and German cars, some Japanese cars are made in America, but for the most part American cars do not represent the majority of the market. I myself drive a Honda Civic Hybrid, not because I consider myself to be a really green or socially conscious person but because I hate paying for gas and I am poor, so if I can save a hundred dollars on gas a month by having a hybrid, or use the carpool lane to cut my commute in half, I'm going to do that, because it just makes good fiscal sense. If time is money, spending an extra hour on the freeway is a waste of money. American automobiles were behind times. By not keeping up with the current market needs, they became a niche company, which cut into their profits and created the need for a government bailout.

I know I'm a terrible American because I keep my money in a Credit Union and drive a foreign made hybrid, but the fact of the matter is had I not had terrible experiences in domestic cars or with the banking industry, I would drive a Ford and be with Bank of America. But when your cars brake line gets confused and thinks you are applying the brake when the car is off, thus leaking brake fluid which can lead to spontaneous combustion, or you transfer a thousand dollars out of my bank account to some woman in South Dakota via my online banking, that I never registered for without so much as a phone call or letter to see if I had registered for this service, does not instill faith in an institution.

Washington did what they thought was necessary to keep us going. Whether or not you agree with it, the bailouts happened so the real question is what's next?

Health care needs reform as much as the banks do. Insurance companies and drug companies charge exorbitant amounts of money for their goods and services. If the cost was universal to all people then it would not be an issue. I myself have an autoimmune disease. All I need is a hormone supplement everyday. A little pill that keeps me going. That pill with insurance cost between five and ten dollars a month. Without insurance that pill costs me fifteen. Again, pragmatic Lauren, not having insurance costs me nothing. Having insurance would cost me $600.00 a month. As I am a student and a freelancer for all intensive purposes and cannot get employee funded health care. The cost does not outweigh the benefit. Since I am going to school if anything happens I can go to the student health center which is either free or $25.00. Again pragmatism, $25.00 when I need it is a much better option for someone like me, than $600.00 a month just in case.

Tea Baggers are worried about socialism. About government being too big. One of their chants is "gather your armies." Well who do you think pays for the armies? They don't want universal health care because they don't see the need or the benefit, or the cost of the uninsured who run out on their bills. But if we took away life guards, police officers, park rangers, animal control, fire men, city and state parks, Holiday parades, escorts for funeral processions, prisons, prison guards, oh wait they've already privatized prisons at the governments expense, mental health facilities or education, I think they would find something new to complain about.

Everyone has an agenda, and their own set of ideals that need to be met, most are selfish. Tea baggers are just pissed off and want their America back. The problem arises in the definition of America, if you grew up in Tallahassee or in Compton, you would have a very different view on what it means to be an American let alone live in America. Subjective realities trying to dictate for the masses is not the way to run a country as diverse as America.