Equality achieved, eh?

So...this article appeared in my daily rundown of the news, the other day.  Fun!

Ohh, gee.  These poor, poor, massively successful, stunningly beautiful, and highly achieving women, are going to be just so upset that a group of likely unattractive nobodies with beer bellies won't be beating down their doors for sex.  Their sense of devastation at the loss of lame sex from misogynistic pricks is palpable.

How about you fuck off from debating your unsolicited judgements of women at all, until you develop the capacity to move beyond deeply ironic objectification, and view the personhood you so freely attribute to your fellow men, eh?

Racism vs. Freedom of Speech: SMACKDOWN

Thought I'd kick blog post numéro deux off with a nice, easy, uncontroversial title...!

So, by this point you'd have to have been living under the proverbial rock to have missed the shitstorm falling from the sky around David Ward M.P.'s statements regarding Israeli action in Palestine...the Jewish population, we are led to believe, are pissed.

Except, the thing is, they're not.  Nor have they any right to be.  The very first problem with this entire escapade is the reverence and truly untouchable status with which 'The Holocaust' (as it has come to be known colloquially), has been imbued.  A degree of holiness shrouds these particular killings of these particular people (because, as we all know from the texts of history, only the Jewish population were targets of Hitler's barbaric campaign, conveniently ignoring the fact that everyone not of direct and pure Aryan descent - excluding good old 'Dolfy himself, of course, but that's another conversation for another time! - including, gypsies, blacks, the disabled, the mentally impaired, the slow of learning, and anyone else he could thing of, were also gassed, enslaved, tortured and murdered in his name.  But somehow, those people seem to have melted out of history.).  Only the Jews have a right to be upset about what happened, and further, the events themselves are sacred.

No atrocity, no genocide, no war can ever compare, nor indeed BE compared to the actions of the Nazis during World War II - regardless the greater suffering, casualties, protraction of time, increasingly savage weaponry, experienced by people all over the world, and at every moment in time, since the end of that regime of which we've heard so much.  Iraq, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Colombia, East Timor, The Gambia...the list of peoples 'The West' is willing to annihilate in the most heinous ways imaginable is, sadly, seemingly endless.  Sanctions are put in place to prevent anything from entering - food, clothes, clean water, medicines, fuel... - but to also simultaneously ensure that valuable exports to wealthy nations of oil, precious metals..., are not impeded.  Local militias are trained and equipped to fight whomever 'The West' deems necessary.  Bombs are rained down indiscriminately, decimating schools, hospitals and homes without a second paused to question 'why?'.  Bodies in mass graves are secreted away.  Peoples who escape death are likely to be sought for intelligence, with torture the textbook-taught method of extraction.  The details are often too grievous to comprehend, and these vile actions are only compounded by the complete lack of media coverage in the countries originating the attacks.  "Not only is your life so worthless that we can invade your country and take it without question, and without repercussion, but so great is your level of insignificance, that the loss of that life has no interest to our lives.".

No-one in their right mind could or would dream of denigrating the sheer hell of the suffering of those poor souls who lived - and died - through the atrocities of that evil man, but it cannot be allowed to deprive us of our appreciation of the suffering of others.  If 1939-1945 is the ultimate and definitive expression of human cruelty for our world, how on earth can we hope to appreciate, never mind alleviate, the cruelty which has only escalated through the development of technology, the thunderous approach of peak oil, 'Westernisation', and neo-Imperialism, to name but a few?

We also have to consider the doublespeak of the Israeli nation, and how there can be one rule in place for the representatives of that nation, and quite another for, well, everyone else.  This is a country not based on 'nationhood', in its traditional sense.  It is a (and I quote) 'homeland for the Jewish people'.  It is defined  almost exclusively by its belief structure, and was founded not due to ties with the land, but because the bible said they could have it.  (Yes, really.)  Israel, unlike the vast majority of countries, speaks for 'the Jewish people', is concerned with the benefit of Jews as opposed to Israelis per se, and considers itself the voice of the many millions of Jews all over the world...BUT, anyone not of Jewish descent may not use the same classifications!  Strips have been torn from Mr. Ward for using precisely identical terminology to those politicians who speak on behalf of Israel, and it has become the focus of much reporting on his 'racism'.  If the goalposts are going to move every time someone opens their mouth, how are we to discuss anything of import, anything sensitive, anything that anyone, anywhere might get upset about?!  The simple answer is that you can't, and I believe that's very much the point.

It's the age-old 'pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...' schtick.  "Quick!!  Don't look at our appalling record in Palestine - check out how much that guy hates us!".  If you can be labelled 'anti-Semitic', then how could anyone possibly take your criticisms of the (undoubtedly) questionable actions of the Israeli government, army and settlers seriously?

By our unfathomable commitment to absolutes in black and white, we allow for the Jewish people to have experienced "the worst" of what the world has to offer, meaning that they firstly cannot be criticised for anything they themselves do..."because they've had it so bad...", and secondly, no question of morality may ever be legitimately raised.

We are doing a great disservice to all peoples of the world by denying them the very essence of their experiences, simply for fear of a politically dominant, yet previously marginalised, group having their 'Most Suffered' titled threatened.

How are we to look at and examine the history that we ourselves as patrons of the planet have been making over the last century, if we have come to the apparently universal conclusion that history stopped around sixty-odd years ago?  How are we to analyse and pick apart military actions which have increased in number, frequency, viciousness, weaponry, radioactivity, quantities of combatants, focus on civilian targets et cetera, et cetera, almost exponentially, if we don't know they have taken place, because they were initiated by America, and that means they are of unquestionable morality, and may therefore be carried out in secret?  How may we apply context to "The Holocaust", if we don't understand the very world in which we live, and how it has altered militarily over the time since that unthinkable event?

Are we really of the opinion as human beings that some are granted a 'free pass'?  To act, speak and dominate with nary a question proffered?  How do personal and national responsibility fit in when so many are above suspicion?

This is why free speech is the most highly prized of all human rights.  Indeed, it is said that if all other freedoms were to be stripped away, the one of greatest import is the ability to speak freely, for with that one, simple right, you can reclaim all others lost to you...so now might be the time to stop willingly handing it over to any and all who demand it...

Square one...and Panorama hates your uterus...

Hello and welcome, dear reader!

I hope this post finds you well, and enjoying your day.  I write to you from the confines of my one bedroomed flat in the currently moist south of the British Isles, because as indicated by the title of this blog, I am housebound through the combined disabling forces of myalgic encephalomyelitis and fibromyalgia.  These are conditions causing primarily, among a whole host of symptoms, extreme tiredness and exhaustion, combined with permanent, excruciating pain...fun!

This, however, shall remain secondary, as I am still in full possession of my faculties, and as such plan to engage these in order to compile a blog for your edification and entertainment...or just to get shit that annoys me off my chest (if we're being honest, here!)...because these days, there's more than enough of that to go around!

We live in extraordinary times, kids.  And nowhere is this more apparent than in the steady erosion of our supposedly 'inalienable human rights' - a topic broached by yesterday evening's BBC1 episode of Panorama: The Great Abortion Divide.  This pantomime of 'fair and balanced' (to coin an ironic Fox phrase) reporting, introduced this sensitive yet straightforward issue of the right to autonomy over one's own body, by highlighting the vicious assaults perpetrated on women by "pro-life" (the most ridiculous political classifications ever?  Are you pro-life?  Hell, no!  I think we should kill everyone!!  Are you pro-choice?  Hell, no!  I think one guy ought to be dictating life to the entire planet!!  ...HINT...  You are pro- or anti-ABORTION, folks.  Let's keep it simple.) protesters either while trying to gain access to an accepted, legal medical procedure, or indeed while simply walking down a public highway.  You see, I don't get to walk around with giant pictures of mutilated unverified propaganda of the things you do that I don't like.  I don't get to harass you in one of the most vulnerable states you'll ever experience in life, in order to force you to change your mind from a rational, time-considered decision to my irrational, emotionally charged yet practically entirely negligent, way of seeing the world.

I have yet to find a protest group which holds as its primary directive the inextricable elements of talking women out of abortions, coupled with a well-conceived and actionable plan for pre- and post-natal care for these women, not to mention serious financial backing for all the babies.  It would appear from this that their concern is not, in fact, as so widely touted the 'protection of innocent life', but rather the removal from women of autonomy, choice and the right to make decisions regarding their own bodies.  Surely, if this had anything whatsoever to do with preservation of life, the main focus of every group would be providing shelter, care, nutrition, clothing, education, et cetera, et cetera for these infants.  But as is glaringly obvious from a brief glance at the actions in Brighton of late, it doesn't.  It's just another dictatorial effort to run our lives as women.

Even better is that Panorama uses this opportunity to employ the ridiculously out-of-date 1967 Abortion Act as a means by which to denigrate women's choices.  As could probably be imagined of such an old act, covering such a prominent issue in women's lives, its mode of implementation is somewhat lacking, primarily as a result of the fact that regardless of the situation, an abortion may only be carried out where there is a medical need.  Now, given that this is grotesquely arbitrary and bears absolutely no relation to the concept of civil rights, doctors have, over the years, had to use their professional discretion in order to work within the confines of the system.  In context, this means that where two doctors have to sign to authorise the termination of the pregnancy, they will use the reasoning that pursuing the pregnancy will cause a great deal more emotional stress than performing a termination.

Given the straitjacket that doctors have been provided to work within the confines of, whereby they cannot simply execute a medical procedure at the request of the patient, this seems a particularly sensible approach. But for the Big Men at the Beeb, this simply means that 'nasty wimmins' are ABusing the glorious system so ably put in place by the upper-class white men that came before them.  Not that the rules of this system are arbitrary and penalising to women for no greater reason than that they play the part of the gestational vessel in the process of procreation.

I truly thought that at least having overcome this in the sixties, we could only hope to improve upon the state of female reproductive rights...but we now face a situation that is creeping towards what our American sisters are exposed to on a daily basis, with bombings, shootings, stabbings and permanent pickets at the one or two clinics which are still barely standing.  Our M.P.s (male and female - thanks for that one, guys...) are sounding off most vociferously about the time limits, the procedures, the conditions for performing the procedure...  These include Nadine Dorries, Maria Miller, Jeremy Hunt, and David Cameron.  Yep, your P.M. retains no delusions regarding his duty to you - his priorities are his own, and you can bet your life that they conflict with anything that's good for you...

They're looking to make you beholden in just one more way - we're heading back to an era where women didn't have a say over their own bodies, and in turn, they didn't have a say over their own lives.  If you can be subjugated into carrying a child by the mere removal of all other options, and we maintain the status quo of women as the primary/sole caregivers and men as the primary/sole breadwinners (because isn't that just the greatest stereotype that ever existed?!), then I'm afraid, my dear, that you are all out of choices.