I'm seriously excited about this movie: Haywire. Why? Because there's something empowering and utterly satisfying as a woman watching a tiny, built MMA fighter kick ass for real. And when I say for real I mean it: watch the first five minutes clip and you can tell Gina Carano knows what she's doing and Channing Tatum didn't hold anything back.
Excellent. Far more believable than Angelina Jolie, whom I adore but think is now WAY too skinny to really pull off being an assassin or martial artist. When she was Lara Croft, sure. But training for a movie can't ever equal professional fighting skills. I have some serious respect for Gina Carano.
Review to come the day after I see it, I'm sure.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
The Great Debate: Morals vs Freedom
A facebook friend posted the following picture today.
This, of course, started a whole line of comments both pro- and anti-choice. One of the most interesting ones I saw was the following: "I agree!! (to another pro-choice comment) But,,, they don't have the right to use it for birth control,there is always those special cases i relize but thier are some tht use it for birth control and thts wrong!! but yes i do agree tht it is the womens choice!!!"
I have a problem with this. If you are pro-choice, you are by definition supporting a woman's right to choose what she does with her own body and medical status. Period. End of story. I'm sorry, but if you say "oh sure she has the right to do what she feels is right EXCEPT when it conflicts with my morals" you aren't really pro-choice.
The abortion debate is really not that different from freedom of speech, freedom for religion, freedom in any sense of the word: the bottom line is it's really easy to support freedom of anything until that moment that said freedom conflicts with your own values. For instance, freedom of speech is easy to support until you hear a racist/sexist/any -ist rant by someone in person or on the internet. Freedom to choose your own religious beliefs is all fine and good until you come face to face wtih extremists. But in both cases, the core value is freedom, right? Therefore, other people have the freedom to practice their own religion or hate and you have the freedom to walk away.
Now, many conservatives will argue that choice isn't a freedom issue because it's all about the child. That very sentiment makes women nothing more than vessels for bearing young, and takes away the freedom of an adult, thinking individual in favor of something that isn't even born yet. There are some religions that teach the soul isn't present in a child until it's born. There are some that believe a child isn't a child until it's actually baptized. Pro-life propaganda will have you believe that a child deserves the chance to become a member of society even to the detriment or death of the CURRENT productive member of society potentially carrying said child. I notice pro-lifers don't bother with teh children after they're born, guaranteeing health care, support, love, adoption, etc...so while pro-life propaganda is everywhere there are commercials saying 1 in 10 children in America don't get enough to eat. Where are you NOW, pro-lifers?
Freedom is uncomfortable and difficult, and hard to maintain, but if you believe in personal freedom within the law (within the law people: I'm talking about a legal MEDICAL procedure in America) doesn't that include another person's freedom of choice without your morals interfering?
This, of course, started a whole line of comments both pro- and anti-choice. One of the most interesting ones I saw was the following: "I agree!! (to another pro-choice comment) But,,, they don't have the right to use it for birth control,there is always those special cases i relize but thier are some tht use it for birth control and thts wrong!! but yes i do agree tht it is the womens choice!!!"
I have a problem with this. If you are pro-choice, you are by definition supporting a woman's right to choose what she does with her own body and medical status. Period. End of story. I'm sorry, but if you say "oh sure she has the right to do what she feels is right EXCEPT when it conflicts with my morals" you aren't really pro-choice.
The abortion debate is really not that different from freedom of speech, freedom for religion, freedom in any sense of the word: the bottom line is it's really easy to support freedom of anything until that moment that said freedom conflicts with your own values. For instance, freedom of speech is easy to support until you hear a racist/sexist/any -ist rant by someone in person or on the internet. Freedom to choose your own religious beliefs is all fine and good until you come face to face wtih extremists. But in both cases, the core value is freedom, right? Therefore, other people have the freedom to practice their own religion or hate and you have the freedom to walk away.
Now, many conservatives will argue that choice isn't a freedom issue because it's all about the child. That very sentiment makes women nothing more than vessels for bearing young, and takes away the freedom of an adult, thinking individual in favor of something that isn't even born yet. There are some religions that teach the soul isn't present in a child until it's born. There are some that believe a child isn't a child until it's actually baptized. Pro-life propaganda will have you believe that a child deserves the chance to become a member of society even to the detriment or death of the CURRENT productive member of society potentially carrying said child. I notice pro-lifers don't bother with teh children after they're born, guaranteeing health care, support, love, adoption, etc...so while pro-life propaganda is everywhere there are commercials saying 1 in 10 children in America don't get enough to eat. Where are you NOW, pro-lifers?
Freedom is uncomfortable and difficult, and hard to maintain, but if you believe in personal freedom within the law (within the law people: I'm talking about a legal MEDICAL procedure in America) doesn't that include another person's freedom of choice without your morals interfering?
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
They're not Resolutions. They're goals with loose morals.
Sometimes the ability for one person to do anything that will make a difference to someone 10,000 miles away is so overwhelmingly insurmountable that said person has to just hope. I know my last few posts were pretty irritated: I'm easily fired up by a few topics, and violence against women is one of my top three. Unfortunately, there truly isn't a damn thing I can do for the women in Afghanistan other than read the news, share, and support the troops. Since I find this frustrating, demoralizing, and depressing I'm working on getting better at creating some sort of boundary between my need to fix everything and the reality that I simply can't in many cases. I can, however, volunteer locally, and I plan to do so in 2012.
I didn't do "resolutions" per se this year, mostly because I'm out of practice. I used to set goals on 1/1 every year in a variety of areas: budget-wise, spiritually, physically, and creatively. I still sort of feel like I'm coming out of a two year fog after my time at my last job: it was so utterly soul-suckingly-exhausting, the idea that I can PLAN instead of living my life airport to airport still seems unreal.
But I DO have some pretty serious goals for 2012, just in case it IS the end. Haha. First, while I'm unemployed (and diligently looking, MN Unemployment), I'm finishing my book. The great and horrible thing about writing every day is that my sleepy creative mind is now WIDE AWAKE. Which means I have a list of other ideas swirling around in there that sometimes get in the way of finishing the novel I'm working on. Dammit!! It's awesome that I have another character forming AND a series of 2 or 4 in the works in my head, but this is ridiculous. I wish I had a professional writer to talk to so I could find out if this is something everyone deals with and how on earth they can focus on one when another insistent entity is knocking on the brainpan.
In the meantime I have to just work on getting it all out.
I didn't do "resolutions" per se this year, mostly because I'm out of practice. I used to set goals on 1/1 every year in a variety of areas: budget-wise, spiritually, physically, and creatively. I still sort of feel like I'm coming out of a two year fog after my time at my last job: it was so utterly soul-suckingly-exhausting, the idea that I can PLAN instead of living my life airport to airport still seems unreal.
But I DO have some pretty serious goals for 2012, just in case it IS the end. Haha. First, while I'm unemployed (and diligently looking, MN Unemployment), I'm finishing my book. The great and horrible thing about writing every day is that my sleepy creative mind is now WIDE AWAKE. Which means I have a list of other ideas swirling around in there that sometimes get in the way of finishing the novel I'm working on. Dammit!! It's awesome that I have another character forming AND a series of 2 or 4 in the works in my head, but this is ridiculous. I wish I had a professional writer to talk to so I could find out if this is something everyone deals with and how on earth they can focus on one when another insistent entity is knocking on the brainpan.
In the meantime I have to just work on getting it all out.
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