The Problem with Slate-Voting for Popular Awards Like the Hugos

Like the vast majority of people who've been voting for the Hugos for years, I have never, ever voted for a slate of people/works. It's certainly been tried. I haven't voted for people I've known for a long time, because I've never viewed the Hugos purely as a popularity contest. I have always believed the Hugos should go for quality works.

I don't believe the slate-voting that produced the 2015 Hugo nominations was a crime or an act or war. I think it was wrong, but it did not break any of the current set of rules, mostly because no individual/group had ever carried the notion of a slate to such an extreme.

In fandom, we often work together, but we act as individuals. It was unthinkable to find 200 people in fandom to vote in the lock step manner the SP slate demanded. So I'd argue anyone who did vote the SP slate is, by default, not a fan.

No matter who wins next August, unlike almost every other year, this year's Hugos will not reflect the votes of Worldcon members, because the nominations were so skewed. Some good works probably will win, but many good works, under the old "cream rises to the top" theory, didn't even make the ballot.

The fact that a slate took over the nominations does not mean I won't vote this summer. I certainly will vote, and I will work to help keep slates from taking over a ballot in the future.

Reviving the "25 Things About Me" Meme

It's probably the ultimate in navel-gazing, but what the hell. I responded to the meme in early 2009, I've added some additional comments [[in double brackets]] in early 2015, just after my 58th birthday.

1. My parents met at Middlebury College in about 1950. Dad was a history major, Mom was an English major and I've always been interested in both history and English (though I went on to be an English major, too). They had relatives who were into genealogy, so I know I've had ancestors in New England from both sides of my family since 1642.
2. I'm the oldest of four children - two girls/two boys. As was more common in the '50s and '60s, my mother had four children in seven years.
3. I learned how to read when I was 5, mostly because I spent weeks in the hospital and at home suffering from nephritis. I was hyperactive and was one of the few girls on Ritalin in 1962.
4. I was one of the tallest kids in kindergarten with one of the biggest voices so I played Santa Claus in the Christmas pagent. "Ho Ho Ho."
5. My father spent most of his career as Director of Placement for Worcester Polytechnic Institute and my mother was a free lance writer who went on to work for WPI's Alumni Journal. Dad was active in local theater groups (including playing Mr. Gibbs in Our Town the week I graduated from high school) and Mom was sometimes sang in a church choir.
6. We rarely traveled out of New England while I was growing up (with 4 kids, it was a little tricky), but in 1968, we made a big cross country trip with our grandmother completely by train since my mother wouldn't fly. We went to Chicago, Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, Anaheim, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe, Vancouver and Montreal. Ironically, a landslide hit the train in the Canadian Rockies and killed one passenger.
7. In the '70s, West Boylston Jr.-Sr. High was a small school with an odd configuration - grades 8-12. The eighth graders were not supposed to join the senior high clubs, but I showed up at Drama Club anyway and wasn't tossed out. There may still exist a black and white tape of my adaptation of "Repent Harlequin, Said the TickTockMan" that I wrote and starred in for a Drama Class in about 1974.
8. I touched my first computer keyboard nearly 35 years ago. It was an early Wang that our school got to teach students computer programming. Paul Yankowskas was also in the computer class, where we learned how to program "Hello World" in BASIC.
9. During high school, I was in Central District Choir three times and Massachusetts All-State once. I made a touring choir (Concordia Youth Chorale) in 1974 and spent three weeks touring Germany, Austria and Italy, with a lunch in Switzerland. This trip made me love international travel and lager beer.
10. While my parents strongly encouraged me to go to Middlebury, I wanted to go to a college in a city out of New England but in the northeast. After spending years researching colleges, I narrowed it down to Case Western (Cleveland) and Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh). I visited both colleges a few weeks before graduation and picked CMU because I liked Pittsburgh much more than Cleveland.
11. I met Jim Mann at a science fiction club meeting on campus two weeks to the day that I arrived. While we became fast friends, we didn't start to date until the following February. The rest, as they say, is history.
12. When Jim and I got married in Massachusetts on May 22, 1977, it was 96 degrees! We had a simple ceremony with an informal reception at an estate on the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
13. I made the University of Pittsburgh College Bowl Trivia Team, at a time when College Bowl wasn't televised but was an interscholastic competition. We placed second in a regional competition. While I later did well playing trivia in bars, I've taken the Jeopardy test twice and failed both times.
14. Leslie was due Election Day 1980, so I got an absentee ballot...which I never needed to file since she wound up being nearly three weeks early. Her first trip outside was so I could go vote. I have voted in every federal election since 1976.
15. When we moved up to Massachusetts in 1982, a huge number of the members of NESFA, the local science fiction club, worked for Digital Equipment Corporation. I was interested in going to work for a computer company, and, eventually, got a job with Stratus Computer (thanks, Kurt Baty!). I worked for Stratus in a number of jobs for nearly ten years; Jim later worked there for about eight years as a technical writer.
16. I've had an E-mail address since 1983, owned a PC since 1988 and been active on the Internet since 1988. At Stratus, I created a departmental intranet in 1986, in an effort to help track forms, training information and other information about publication production.
17. I learned HTML in 1994 and created the first Hugo/Nebula site in HTML (AwardWeb) that October. I went on to run Women Leaders online for a few years, and then took over Dead People Server, a site I've been curating since 1997.
18. I burned out after working for about three years at ANSYS (which included an insane schedule to convert documents to XML in advance of our then-current publishing software failing at the end of 1999), and went back to finish my long-delayed college degree at Pitt in 2000. I graduated with honors in April 2001.
19. I'm enough of a movie fan that 2009 marks the 40th year I both predicted Oscar winners and will be watching the show. In 2004, I actually watched the Oscars from a ballroom in Hollywood along with 1,000 rowdy Lord of the Rings fans. About 20 members of the cast and crew of LOTR visited our party later than night with their Oscars.
20. Our daughter had no first cousins (except for one step-first-cousin) until she was 23 years old; now she she has 4.
21. While most of my family have been longtime Republicans, my mother's cousin Alice was a Democratic legislator in Vermont who used to commute to Montpelier with Howard Dean in his pick-up truck. Politically, I take after Alice's side of the family (at least after 1975 or so).
22. While I can't say "I was nominated for a Hugo," I can say "A book I edited was nominated for a Hugo" since William Tenn's "Dancing Naked" was nominated for a Non-Fiction Hugo in 2005. Since Phil was unable to go to Worldcon in Scotland, I was his designated acceptor. It was an honor to be a designated acceptor! ;->
23. I worked for Obama, voted for him (only the 3rd time I voted for a winning president), and attended his Inauguration (1.5 miles away from the Capitol, but what the hell).
24. My movie geekdom probably reached its peak in 2008 when I was an extra on "She's Out of My League," and I started the fan site "The Road Rumors and News." Both movies are due out in 2009. [[Since then, I've been on about 30 different movie/TV sets.]]
25. [[We've been able to take some big trips since 2009, and have gone to southeastern Australia, Alaska, England, Ireland, Wales and Canada (twice).]]

Why To Vote in the Mid-Terms

It's simple - anyone who tells you "it's not worth voting since all politicians are the same" is lying!

Are the Democrats perfect? Well, no. But the Democrats:

• Believe in raising the minimum wage - Republicans do not.
• Believe in stronger gun background checks - Republicans do not.
• Believe in supporting the Violence Against Women Act consistently - Republicans voted against it in 2013, but enough supported it in 2014 that it was finally renewed.
• Believe in keeping the government up and running - Republicans do not.
• Believe in government support of peer-reviewed scientific research - Republicans do not.
• Believe in bringing rapists in the military to justice - Republicans do not.
• Believe the US must pay its debts - Republicans do not.

So I will vote for the party who cares more about supporting the people than what the Koch Brothers and ALEC tell them to do - I will vote for Democrats. I used to vote Republican regularly, but, over the years, the Republicans have become the party of the rich and cares little about this country as a whole. And that's very sad.

Don't Stay In a Relationship When Someone Beats You

I have always known about abused women because, as early as in high school, I knew girls who were beaten up by their boyfriends. As much as I wanted a boyfriend, I swore I would never be in a relationship where a man beat me.

While my parents were argumentative, I never saw either parent ever lay a hand each other. And the same is true of Jim and me - we certainly argue (especially when we were younger) but we don't beat one another.

People need to expect to be in relationships that include mutual respect. If it includes beating, the person needs to leave.

Now, I certainly understand why women, in particular might stay - status, financial issues, if there are kids involved...but that goes back to needing to have a positive self-image, which, sadly, many women don't have. And I'm sorry if this comes off as being too judgmental about women like Janay [Ray Lewis's fiance now wife]...but I'd rather work in WalMART (and I despise WalMART) than be in a relationship where a man treated me badly.

But, the fact is, women are trained, particularly by many religious, to be subservient to men. That leaves men thinking that they have the right to abuse women, that they have ownership.

Enough already.

So how to we raise our children to know:

• You don't beat people
• You don't let yourself be beaten
• You don't stay in a relationship where you are beaten

?

What City Has the Most Bridges and Why Is This Fact Unfindable on the Web?

I am a trivia fanatic. I grew up glued to College Bowl, Jeopardy and almost memorizing the '70s version of the Guinness Books of World Records.

When I was younger and had a better memory, it was easy to memorize trivial facts because they are facts. Tom Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar for Forrest Gump the year after winning one for Philadelphia. Easy. The Union beat the Confederacy in the Civil War. Clearly a fact though some people might still argue that particular one.

I do a little work for a company that gives tours of Pittsburgh. I know one trivial fact about Pittsburgh we always said was "Pittsburgh has the second most bridges in the world after Venice." Makes sense. Both are cities with rivers/canals and loads of bridges that go over them. I visited Venice in 1974, and saw many, many tiny bridges that were walkways over narrow canals all over town. The next year, I moved to Pittsburgh to go to college and saw a very different landscape - bridges over much wider rivers, and bridges that went between the many ridges and hills in the area.

But yesterday I was talking to a woman from Hamburg, Germany who was insistent that Hamburg had the most number of bridges of any city in the world. I really don't know anything about Hamburg, so I tried to look it up online...And found it was really hard. Because the first "fact" about "most bridges in a city" was from ask.com - and it was completely wrong. Ask.com claims that Pittsburgh has the most bridges of any city - more than Venice, even - 446. Venice only has 409. So Pittsburgh has more bridges than Venice.

But, after digging a little more, I found that Hamburg has at least 2300 bridges. Maybe it's a geographically huge city, because that's a lot of bridges.

So vis a vis bridges, Hamburg was #1, Pittsburgh was #2 and Venice was #3.

But then someone said "What about Amsterdam?" so I looked - and Amsterdam has 1281 bridges.

So that means ask.com is at least doubly-wrong about the number of bridges; Hamburg is #1, Amsterdam is #2, Pittsburgh is #3 and Venice is #4.

Ask.com has no obvious place to send corrections.

---

And I am curious about this, so if you know about a city that has at least 400 bridges and a way online to verify this fact, send it to me and I'll keep a running tally here.

Cities with the Most Bridges

last updated 4/15/2016

• Hamburg, Germany: 2,300
• Amsterdam, Netherlands: 1,281 -- a site in Dutch seems to say Amsterdam has over 2,300 bridges
• New York, New York, USA: 788
• Pittsburgh, PA, USA: 446
• Venice, Italy: 409
• Seattle, WA, USA: 149

Cities that probably have loads of bridges but I can't find a specific number:
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Live in Southcentral PA & Know a Person with a Dark-Colored Ford Ranger XLT Pickup with Recent Damage?

Just read of a tragic gun murder in Pennsylvania, yet another example of crazy people having access to guns.

If you live in southcentral Pennsylvania, northcentral Maryland or northeastern West Virginia, and you know someone with a dark colored Ford Ranger XLT pickup with damage on the driver's side from ramming another car on 1/5, you may know a murderer.

CNN's coverage of this story.

Please share this information around if you live in the region - you may know someone who'd murder a random motorist, and who may be connected to one or two other shootings in the region over the last few months. You can help find the murderer of Timothy Davison if you share the CNN story with others, and if you be on the lookout for a dark colored Ford Ranger XLT pickup.

Of course, if you do know a gun owner who owns this kind of truck, talk to the cops. Don't try to be a hero or, for that matter, accuse an innocent person of a murder.

Remembering the Newtown Kids on the First Anniversary of Their Murders

• The 1st anniversary after the #newtown murders - remember the kids shot that day, as the NRA-owned Congress does not care - WE DO! #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Emilie Parker who would've been 7 on 5/12, wanted to be Hermionie Granger for her birthday. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Charlotte Bacon, in whose memory a Kindness Award was started. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Jesse Lewis who wrote "Nurturing Healing Love" on a chalkboard at home before he was murdered. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering the rambunctious Noah Pozner whose twin sister was in another class. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering red-headed Daniel Barden whose dad taught him Jingle Bells on the piano on his last morning. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Olivia Engel, who was a Daisy Girl Scout. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Josephine Gay, who loved the water and whose parents set up a fund for autistic children. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Dylan Hockley whose parents included a reading of Goodnight Moon at his memorial service. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Madeleine Hsu who loved dogs and wearing pink. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Catherine Hubbard who loved animals. Her parents asked for donations to an animal center. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Chase Kowalski who loved sports & played baseball. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Ana Marquez-Greene, who sang via video during her funeral. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering James Mattioli who always loved to sing. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Grace McDonnell who loved the beach. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Jack Pinto who was buried in a NY Giants jersey. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Caroline Previdi whose favorite charity was The Toy Chest at her church. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Jessica Rekos who wanted cowboy boots for Christmas. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Avielle Richman whose Dad had been blogging about her adventures in 2012. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Jonathan Wheeler who wanted to be a paleontologist. #WeAreNewtown
• Remembering Allison Wyatt, an artistic girl who shared with strangers. #WeAreNewtown
• We should never forget the children of #newtown, particularly on the anniversary of their murders. Write your representative - better gun laws save lives. #WeAreNewtown

I have remembered the educators who tried to protect the children on Dead People Server.

Never forget that these were the senators who cared more about the NRA's opinion of them than the 90% of the public who wants better background checks. Here are the Twitter accounts of these senators:

@SenAlexander @KellyAyotte @SenJohnBarrasso @MaxBaucus @SenatorBegich

@RoyBlunt @JohnBoozeman @SenatorBurr @SaxbyChambliss @SenDanCoates

@TomCoburn @JeffFlake @SenThadCochran @SenBobCorker @JohnCornyn

@MikeCrapo @SenTedCruz @SenatorEnzi @SenMikeLee @SenatorFischer

@GrahamBlog @ChuckGrassley @SenOrrinHatch @jiminhofe

@SenatorHeitkamp @SenDeanHeller @SenJohnHoeven @SenatorIsakson

@Mike_Johanns @SenRonJohnson @McConnellPress @JerryMoran

@lisamurkowski @SenRandPaul @robportman @SenMarkPryor @SenatorRisch

@SenPatRoberts @marcorubio @SenatorTimScott @SenatorSessions

@SenShelbyPress @SenJohnThune @DavidVitter @SenatorWicker

Twitter Hashtag - #FirstThingIBoughtOnline

Started a Twitter hashtag in honor of this most commercial of seasons: #FirstThingIBoughtOnline: 3-year old cheddar cheese @CabotCoop 12/1994 What's the first thing you bought online? Stop by Twitter, use the hashtag and write about it!

Facebook Was Broken for Me Today (10/21/2013)

When I wake up, I check my mail, Facebook and Twitter. All was well this morning. Ran some errands and was back around 9am. Everything else was fine...except that I could not add comments to any Facebook page. Earlier, some of the pages also looked wrong, but that problem has since gone away. Very annoying. So if you're looking for me on Facebook, I guess you won't find me there today.

---

By about 10:30, the problem went away as mysteriously as it came. Other people have reported similar problems on Facebook today.

Never Forget: These Senators Voted for the United States to Default on Its Debts

As you consider who to vote for in future elections, remember these Senators voted for the United States to default on its debts.

@TomCoburn @JohnCornyn @MikeCrapo @SenTedCruz @SenatorEnzi
@ChuckGrassley @SenDeanHeller @SenRonJohnson @SenMikeLee
@SenRandPaul @SenatorRisch @SenPatRoberts @marcorubio
@SenatorTimScott @SenatorSessions @SenShelbyPress
@SenToomey @DavidVitter @SenatorWicker

Oh, and even though everyone knew there would be a vote last night, Inhofe did not vote at all, though he was reported to be sick.

Interesting but not surprising that the overwhelming number of Senators voting "No" (for default) represent former slave states.

Thinking About Convention Codes of Conduct

In the "old days" (about 1976 or so), there was an informal Fannish Code of Conduct:

Do Good
Do No Harm
Throw a Good Room Party

At last night's Confluence meeting, we had a brief discussion about developing a code of conduct for Confluence and I said I'd help develop one.

Ideally, I'd like it to be what we had in the '70s - something extremely short, to just remind people to be adults.

There have been some harassment issues at Confluence. They haven't been quite as ugly as at other cons, but I know they have happened. People have the right to attend a con and if they feel unsafe, the con com should be told and the harasser should have his (or her) membership pulled.

Boskone's Code of Conduct gets pretty much to the point (and was vetted by at least one if not two lawyers):

http://www.nesfa.org/boskone/codeofconduct.html

I think some cons have codes of conduct that go on a bit long (even if I do agree with most of its points):

http://techdays.org/2013/03/code-of-conduct/

Both John Scalzi

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/07/02/my-new-convention-harassment-policy/

and Mary Robinette Kowal

http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/on-sexual-harassment-at-conventions-elise-matheson-speaks-out/

have written at length about Con Behavior/Codes of Conduct.

It would be nice if our Code of Conduct could be something simple as:

Don't be a jagoff
A jagoff is a person who harasses others, feels entitled to make sexual advances, tries to make others feel uncomfortable. If someone tells you "No" or "Go Away" and you don't go away, you're a jagoff. If your behavior continues and is reported to a con com member, we can pull your badge and tell you to "Go Away."
So, don't be a jagoff, be an adult.

For folks from outside the Pittsburgh area, common definitions for jagoff.

Hate the Republican Shutdown? E-mail Your Tea Party Rep/Senator EVERY DAY

I live in a reddish area outside of Pittsburgh, so my Congressman, Tim Murphy and Senator, Pat Toomey are both pretty solidly Tea Party (though Toomey did vote for the Violence Against Women Act and did work with Joe Manchin to try to improve gun checks, so he very occasionally shows a little sense). We know politicians tend to lie, but Republicans seem wedded to the big lie. Most of the Tea Party claims that they are only hearing from the "Shut the Government Down" faction.

It is vital for the people who want the government re-opened to contact their reps, even if they're Tea Party types, frequently, every day if possible.

I have E-mailed Murphy and Toomey every day of the Republican shutdown. They need constant reminders that many people in every district want a progressive, properly funded country. I urge you to write to your federal legislators.

In addition, I tweet a message supporting Obama every day, and telling Boehner to let the Congress vote. Tweets are more symbolic than practical. But I think they are useful.

I'll keep a record of my E-mails and tweets here and will update it daily.

To E-mail any Senator, go to senate.gov. To E-mail any Representative, to to house.gov.

---

10/7

My daily E-mail to Tea Party Tim Murphy & Senator Pat Toomey:
Republicans keep claiming that the Affordable Care Act, which is still not completely implemented, has "failed." A year ago, Republicans kept claiming that Romney would beat Obama in the November election. How can we believe people who are that out-of-touch? I encourage you to ignore your Tea Party overlords and do what's right for the American people - stop the shutdown!

(And, at the same time that people are pounding on the ACA for some bad coding on the ACA Website, Toomey's Web crew continues to be so incompetent that they can't process the information from a single Webform with about 20 fields. So, again, I had to go into the Tea Party-infested Facebook page of Pat Toomey to submit my daily complaint.)

Tweets (OK, I'm guilty of a repeat here)
.@BarackObama, Democrats & some Republicans: Stay strong and DON'T BLINK. Americans have your backs. #BoehnerShutdown
.@SpeakerBoehner - it's clear if you had the courage to stand up to the Tea Party insurgency, the Senate's clean bill would pass. #DOYOURJOB

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10/6

My daily E-mail to Tea Party Tim Murphy & Senator Pat Toomey:
Much as I do think the government must go back to work, I am glad you voted to pay furloughed Federal workers. Please fight for the people and get back to work.

[[Toomey's CAPCHA code was broken AGAIN so I had to go to his Facebook page...*sigh*]]

Tweets:
.@BarackObama, Democrats & some Republicans: Stay strong and DON'T BLINK. Americans have your backs. #BoehnerShutdown
.@SpeakerBoehner - it's clear if you had the courage to stand up to the Tea Party insurgency, the Senate's clean bill would pass. #DOYOURJOB

---

10/5

My daily E-mail to Tea Party Tim Murphy & Senator Pat Toomey:
The Republican shutdown continues even on a weekend, so I'm writing to you on a weekend to remind you that you don't just represent the Tea Party - you're supposed to be representing ALL of your constituents. Not everyone agrees with you; many of us care about the country, and it is only being damaged by your shutdown.

Tweets:
.@BarackObama, Democrats & rational Republicans - some of us write our TP reps daily in support of you. Stay strong, we have your backs.
.@SpeakerBoehner Thanks again for showing up you have no courage against the Tea Party insurgents-PERMIT A VOTE. #BoehnerShutdown

---

10/4

To Representative Murphy & Senator Toomey:
My daily reminder that not all of your constituents are Tea Partiers. In fact, many of us will never vote for another Republican after this Republican shutdown. Get back to work.

Tweets:
To @BarackObama, Democrats & Rational Republicans - Stand strong against the tea party insurgency. We have your backs! #BoehnerShutdown
.@SpeakerBoehner Show you have courage against the Tea Party insurgents-PERMIT A VOTE. The Republican shutdown is now the #BoehnerShutdown

---

10/3

E-mail to Representative Murphy & Senator Toomey:
I watched a video where Republican Congressman Randy Neugebauer of Texas harassed a National Park Ranger, trying to blame the ranger for obeying the rules of the government shutdown. Aren't you at least a little ashamed to be in the same party as someone who who can't take responsibility for the actions of your party? Your party started the shutdown, and your party is the only group who can stop it. Get back to work.

Tweets:
To @BarackObama, Democratic & a Growing Number of Republican Reps: Stay strong for America & DON'T BLINK. More voters than have your backs
@SpeakerBoehner Stop being the Tea Party's lapdog! Do something for AMERICANS for a change - bring the Senate bill to a vote TODAY.

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10/2

E-mail to Representative Murphy & Senator Toomey:
This is my daily reminder to you - I live in Pennsylvania and I do not believe the Republicans should either shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act or play games with the debt ceiling. Stop it and get back to work.

Tweets:
To President Obama, Democrats & an increasing number of Republicans: Stay strong against the extremists and DON'T BLINK. We have your backs

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10/1

E-mail to Representative Tim Murphy & Senator Pat Toomey:
I will try to write to you every day of the Republican shutdown of the federal government, just to remind you that Americans are disgusted. I am opposed to the government being shut down because you Republicans don't believe in the Affordable Care Act. It passed. Get over it and move on.
As my friend Laura Anne Gilman says: To: every member of Congress. From: nearly every US citizen. Hand in your paychecks until you decide to work again.
If there's any part of government who most deserves to not be paid, it's the Congress, especially the Republican members.

Tweets:
President Obama, Democrats, & the few rational Republicans - Stay strong and don't blink. We have your backs against the American Taliban

Think About This Country's Financial Obligations [[An Open Letter to Congress]]

I originally published this on Facebook on July 12, 2011 at 12:35pm. However, it pathetic that our "talk-lots/do-nothing" Congress has put us back in this position again so I'm republishing this short essay again.

---

Have you bothered to read the Constitution?

Do you know what the 14th Amendment means?

Third World countries default on their debts, but countries like America never should.

The debt ceiling needs to be raised, millionaires need to pay more taxes, tax loopholes need to be closed, the minimum age for Social Security benefits needs to be raised, and the government should not start wars it has no plan to pay for.

You should all be ashamed of your obstructionism, but, of course, you are not.

---

It is ironic these days that the "traditional enemies" of the US do not seem to be Iran or Russia anymore - it's the many obstructionist Republican members of the House (including the representative for our district, Timothy Murphy and one senator, Pat Toomey).
The only thing I'd change in this essay is "the minimum age for Social Security benefits needs to be raised." What I should have said was "the salary ceiling for Social Security should be increased to the first $500,000 of income."

In Praise of Police When They Protect and Serve and Not When They Murder the Public

I've been extremely troubled by a rash of police pre-emptively shooting people, generally black men. Isn't the slogan for police "To Protect and Serve"? How is the murder of men like Jonathan Ferrell protecting or serving anyone?

I blame poor education, bad training and entrenched racism for most of these shootings. Cops everywhere do not behave so stupidly. When cops are properly hired and trained, they can solve problems.

We had an incident at our house a couple of years ago when a drunk teenager, apparently looking for his girlfriend, chose our doorbell to ring at 4am. We went and talked to the kid, but he refused to go away (frankly, he was too drunk). We said if you don't leave we're calling the cops. He didn't leave, so we called the cops. A single female cop showed up within ten minutes and talked to the kid. She diffused the situation in a way we could not, not by shooting, tasing or arresting the kid, but by firmly talking to him. She figured out where he lived and brought him home. She protected and served, which is what cops ought to be doing. We declined to press any charges because she solved the situation.

I wish all Americans could rely on the police as we did. Jonathan Ferrell, apparently upset by having been in a car accident, did not have that opportunity.

2013.09.17 - In news reports about the North Carolina shooting, the cop pumped 10 bullets into Jonathan Ferrell. Sometimes, cops do accidentally kill innocent people, but shooting 12 times, at least 10 of those shots hitting their intended target? That was no accident.

Things I'm on the Fence About

I'm generally an independent person, but the Republican party has gone so far to the right over the last 20 years that I haven't voted for a Republican since 1999 and have been a registered Democrat since just after the 2004 presidential election.

Despite this, I try not to be a knee-jerk progressive. I don't completely agree with progressives on a couple of issues:

• Government-ID for voting. Most poor people do have government-issued ID, even if they don't have a driver's license. It isn't that hard to get. If anything, it might be harder for older people or people who live in very rural areas, and who might be more likely to vote Republican to get a government-issued ID if they don't already have a driver's license. That said, the Republicans are clearly over-rating potential voter fraud, and are trying to disenfranchise people likely to vote for Democrats. I encourage everyone to ensure they have a valid, government-issued ID of some kind to ensure they can vote no matter what weird gymnastics the Republicans require.
• Edward Snowden. He's not a traitor and he's not a hero either. Still not quite sure what to make of him. Neither side, nor Snowden himself, have made a compelling argument either way. He is telling us stuff our government has been doing for years, but I've found everything unsurprising. He's clearly broken a number of federal laws (as a government contractor, he had to sign a number of papers promising not to divulge what he learned in his job), but that isn't the same thing as being a traitor. But the Snowden problem raises a larger issue, one that's been generally ignored - why the hell is the NSA hiring contractors? If our security is so important, why isn't the NSA only hiring regular government employees who have to undergo a full security clearance before they are hired?
• Investing. I've always believed in enlightened self-interest. Capitalism and the stock market can raise people out of poverty. I only need look as far as my own husband to see that (coupled with native intelligence and an excellent education, paid for by scholarships, work/study and loans). Sadly, many people who start investing don't understand what they're doing. Coupled with unregulated behavior by many financial institutions, it looks like the deck is hopelessly stacked against small investors. It isn't - you need to be a careful investor. If anyone tells you they have an easy way to $1,000,000, they are lying.

When I was younger, I used to be more on the fence about unions, but given the current mess Republicans (pushed by ALEC and the Kook...errh, Koch Brothers) have made of employee rights, we need unions now more than ever.

I believe strongly in the tenants of the modern Democratic party, including its promotion of personal rights, protecting women and minorities, education, gun control, infrastructure, having a strong social safety net including health care and environmental protection. The Republicans have been very much wrong over their anti-tax raving. As Twitterer @AngieinWAState said "I like paying taxes, with them I buy...civilization." I want to live in a civilized country. The Republicans don't care if the United States is a civilized country, they only care to keep as much of the country's wealth for themselves.

My Uterus - a Look Back

Wouldn't you know that during the year after my hysterectomy, public discussion of the uterus is more popular than ever?

Despite my lack of a uterus and ovaries, I don't feel particularly left out. Jim and I felt early on that one kid was plenty and that my anatomy did not mean I had to have many children. We were always extremely careful about birth control, stopped using it when we were ready to have a child, had a child, returned to mandatory birth control use and then Jim had a vasectomy when we were sure we were ready for that. We made those plans and we retained control of the size of our family and of our reproductive health.

At the same time, while birth control no longer impacts me directly, I have always very strongly believed that individuals must have easy access to birth control, Plan B, and abortion. So I will continue to stand with women across the country who must fight the state to retain their rights to unimpeded birth control and abortion.

I didn't wake up one morning and decide "I think I'll get rid of my uterus and ovaries so I'll never need to worry about them again." I'd had a few rounds of ovarian cysts that got progressively more painful and led to multiple surgeries. In fact, when the cysts came back again when I was 51, I switched to a new gynecologist whenever I was told "You should have a hysterectomy." After all, I was well into perimenopause, and menopause itself tends to stop ovarian cysts from reoccurring. But, at 55, I was still having painful periods and then got quite sick. So I was more than ready to say "Enough, I'll finally have a hysterectomy." It was my decision. My choice. I had the surgery because I was ready for it.

Women should always be able to make their own decisions about their reproductive health care, something that is no longer true in states like Texas, Ohio, North Carolina, Oklahoma...the list goes on.

If you look up information about hysterectomies online, you'll read all kinds of information, some of it quite scary. Women are different, and the age you have a hysterectomy makes a huge difference. Since I was 55, my ovaries were already making less estrogen. Since I have a history of endometriosis and am a DES daughter, I could not consider going on hormone replacement therapy after the surgery. I admit, I was a little concerned about that, even though I've never been a "girly girl" type. Would a hysterectomy create more problems than it would fix?

While I had some problems post-op (an infected ovary led to an infection that migrated to the surgical wound which required all kinds of extra treatment (but, luckily, no additional hospitalization)), I recovered pretty rapidly. I felt I was about 95% back to normal within 6 weeks of surgery. Jim and I went to Chicon and while I couldn't carry much, I walked a lot and had some great meals out.

A year post-op, I feel pretty good. I lost and regained 20 pounds, so I weigh about the same I had for the last couple of years. My weight "realigned" a little - my skin is a little looser, my breasts are a little smaller and so on. I'm walking a little over 2 miles a day (I've walked over 1,000 miles since early 2012 when I increased my walking and started using MapMyWalk to track my activity). But the frequent pelvic pain and all that extra bleeding is gone and I generally feel better. I still have a horrible case of insomnia, so I'm exhausted much of the time and my concentration is so-so - the hysterectomy had no impact on that at all.

So, do I talk a little about sex? A hysterectomy impacts a woman's sex life in many ways. The issue here is that while I may want to be very open about how I feel about sex, I'm part of a longtime couple, and Jim is not fond of TMI-type discussions because they involve him too, and I do respect his privacy. A hysterectomy has to impact your sexual response over the short term because of scar tissue, the lack of a uterus, lack of estrogen...but, after a few months, if you take sex very easy (think of any kind of physical rehab), it can be as good as before. Sex is slightly different for me, but really not that much. My advice is don't panic during the first couple of months about sex after a hysterectomy, but if you have severe pain, go see your doctor. In general, if you had a positive attitude/experience about sex pre-surgery, you'll make adjustments and have a positive attitude/experience afterwards.

Support from family and friends after any major surgery was extremely helpful. I was very moved to get many messages from folks online after my surgery. I was very active in an online forum called Hystersisters for a few months which is for women who are having/have had hysterectomies. I had some mixed feelings about the forum. Most of the information they gave was accurate and practical, and sharing posts with other women who were pretty-much home-bound for a few weeks about their experiences was good. But...it was cutesy in places ("pamper the princess" - UGH), they tended to be overly cautious on activity and there's some odd group-think that goes on among the leaders. With those cautions, I do recommend that hysterectomy patients check out the forum to see if it's helpful to them.

Fighting the Rapislators

Did you know that we now live in a country where some of the states are now legislating state-sponsored rape while gagging doctors' ability to provide actual medical advice?

Here is the FBI definition of rape (1/2012)

“The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

In Ohio, legislation that Republicans have passed mandate that women have an ultrasound (which is not medically necessary for an early abortion) with a vaginal probe (ditto).

I don't know about you, but I would observe that a state mandating an unnecessary test that includes a vaginal probe is the state raping the woman symbolically. It's meant to make abortions more difficult, impeding women of their right to have an abortion if they chose to have one. It means states like Ohio and Texas no longer have Republican legislators - they have rapislators, a sadly accurate term coined by @WiseRiseInfo on Twitter on 7/1/2013. Rapislators are people (usually men, almost always Republicans) who are using state-sponsored rape to restrict women's rights.

Often, we hear rapislators claim they are pro-life. BULLSHIT! Rapislators are are only interested in restricting women's rights. In Ohio, they've gone so far to add the unnecessary sonogram with vaginal probe to women seeking birth control. If you are truly only anti-abortion, you'd encourage women to get birth control. And, apparently there's language that restricts a doctor's ability to give accurate medical information to women who want to get abortions.

I do not believe abortion is murder. But, if it is murder, it is murder in self-defense. It's a woman standing her ground. If a woman does not want to have an abortion, I support her decision. But I do not, I cannot, support any government that makes any decision about her reproductive health for her.

We need to find ways to fight the rapislators. I'm sending the following to Attorney General Eric Holder and to President Barack Obama:

 

Dear Sir:

In January 2012, the FBI defined rape in the following way:

“The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

Since this is now the definition of rape, how can the Justice Department permit states like Ohio to mandate an unnecessary test like a sonogram with a vaginal probe before a woman gets an abortion? How is that not rape?

The Justice Department should nullify any state law that includes unnecessary medical tests and runs counter to Roe vs. Wade. Frankly, it looks like the federal government is supporting symbolic state-sponsored rape by some states by not acting.

 

I could not find a direct address for Attorney General Holder, but this address askdoj@usdoj.gov is supposed to forward DOJ E-mail. And you can write to President Obama via this form.

My Approach to Following Accounts on Twitter, X BlueSky and Spoutible

(last updated 11/22/2024)


Under Elon Musk, Twitter...err X was rapidly going downhill. It became "MuskyTwitter" and stopped being an open social media system. I quit Twitter on 11/6/2024 because Musk's impact on the election was abhorent. Here's my Twitter archive, less DMs.

You can find me mostly on BlueSky or on Spoutible.

---

A typical post from me

I periodically take social media vacations, but I'm likely to be back in a couple of weeks.


I like real followers. I regularly purge bots and inactive followers except for a few friends who like to read but not participate.

I was delighted when Twitter finally started to deal with its bot problems.  On 2/20/2018, they started to delete accounts from bot farms.  The grief the far right expressed over losing their bots was very funny.  Maybe they got too many complaints from Republicans, who have been the big beneficiaries of bot farms.

There aren't reliable tools for finding bots unless you have their IP addresses (which X does).  There are some tools you can use once or twice but then they demand payments.  X was getting better at identifying/purging certain kinds of spambots, like these:

I do not intend to share pic on Twitter however you can add my snapchat: XXXX so I am able to send you my pictures etc.

or

Goт мy ғιrѕт oғғer тodαy ғroм 100ĸғollowerѕ INC, GET 10,000 Twιттer Followerѕ ғor $39, αт http://bit.ly/XXXXXXX

While pro-Republican bots are easier to identify, there are pro-Democratic bots as well, and I'll block them as readily as any other bots.  There are some people who are trying so hard to conceal their identities so their accounts look like bot accounts.  When I see an account with a string of numbers in its account name, I almost always block it as a possible bot.   So if you're a real person but I've blocked you anyway, that's why - your account looks too much like a bot account. If you use words like "humble" "cryptocurrency" or phrases like "looking for love" in your profile, that screams "likely bot" & is an instant block

I'm not the kind to follow back everyone. Here are the kinds of accounts I avoided on X, but, so far, I rarely find them on Spoutible. Now that BlueSky is has more accounts, I am finding them more often on BlueSky and now block several accounts per day:

• Accounts that are sexist, racist, religiously fanatical, gun-loving, #MAGA (RightWingNutJob), #GamerGate (if you don't know about this, you really don't want to know about this), pro-puppy (ditto), political bots (people obviously only trying to make trouble).  
• Any account with a gun in their profile or background picture or that posts obscene pictures (particularly of Melania - the problem is DON not her)  or disrespectful graphics of people, with the exception of Trump who's gone out of his way to earn our disrespect.
• Commercial-only accounts (except for those related to interesting books, movies, restaurants or places to visit), or accounts by individuals that seem only to link to "special deals." Some of these individual accounts have perfectly-reasonable bios, but when you read the tweets, it's clear these "individuals" have nothing real to say and are only trying to sell you something.
• Anyone pushing scams, like "I want to pay to use your photo" (which was apparently a common scam on Instagram & definitely happens on BlueSky) and the ever-popular cryptocurrency (which may some day be more legitimate but is still pretty dicey) are both instant #BlockAndMoveOn 
• Men (or women for that matter) whose profiles say something like "I'm sincere and looking for love."  Please, there's got to be more to your life than "looking for love" (unless the account really is just a bot as that's a common bot tactic).
• Any profile with the word "expert" or "influencer" in it (and most with the word "marketing" in it), though I make an exception if the person posts interesting tweets (most self-proclaimed experts/influencers do not).
• Accounts with an "egg" icon, a fish-face photo, a porn-like photo or no biographical info. I want to know something about the people I'm following. If you can't say something about yourself or upload a photo, how do I know you're not just a bot? Social media should be interactive - why should we interact? Occasionally, I do follow egg/no bio accounts when they've made some interesting tweets.
• Trolls (and, yes, sometimes even accounts I'd agree with on paper are trolls who are only there to stir things up).
• Any tweet that's just a link gets its account blocked because often these are links to viruses.
• People I know IRL and would rather not engage with on social media. It's a free country.
• I want to be able to read some of your social media posts before I follow you.  Any bot can have a half-way "real" profile constructed for it, but seeing some of the posts can also help show whether it's a real person or a bot. 
• Anyone who posts the proported name of any alleged anonymous whistleblower. I'm sure that will happen more often during a second Trump presidency

I also think demanding a follow back or visiting a link is silly. I appreciate follow backs but don't demand them. I might be too outspoken for many and that's fine.

Basically, when I run into people I'd rather not follow, I #blockandmoveon.

I do not read social media Chat/Messages from people I do not know. With only a few exceptions, they've been spam or harassment or messages from pathetic men who feel they must make an impression on you. I'm glad women don't tend to behave like that!

Who Voted in the Senate to Protect Military Rapists?

There has been an epidemic of reported rapes in the military over the last few years. So what does the Senate Armed Services Committee decide to do?

Protect the rapists.

I'm particularly disappointed by Claire McCaskill's vote. She, sometimes, pretended to be a progressive (certainly compared to Todd Akin, she was). But she's a woman with half a brain in her head part of the time, and yet she voted to continue to shield military rapists. SHAME!

(corrected phone list from Politics USA)

Kelly Ayotte (R -NH) (202) 224-3324
Roy Blunt (R – MO) (202) 224-5721
Saxby Chambliss (R – GA) (202) 224-3521
Deb Fischer (R – NE) (202) 224-6551
Lindsey Graham (R – SC) (202) 224-5972
James Inhofe (R – OK) (202) 224-4721
Tim Kaine (D – VA) (202) 224-4024
Angus King (I – ME) (202) 224-5344
Mike Lee (R – UT) (202) 224-5444
Carl Levin (D – MI) (202) 224-6221
Joe Manchin (D – WV) (202) 224-3954
John McCain (R – AZ) (202) 224-2235
Claire McCaskill (D – MO)(202) 224-6154
Bill Nelson (D – FL) (202) 224-5274
Jack Reed (D – RI) (202) 224-4642
Jeff Sessions (R – AL) (202) 224-4124
Roger Wicker (R – MS) (202) 224-6253

Twitter list, many of the same people who voted against the Violence Against Women Act and Gun Background Checks:

@KellyAyotte @RoyBlunt @SaxbyChambliss

@SenatorFischer @GrahamBlog @jiminhofe

@timkaine @SenAngusKing @SenMikeLee

@SenCarlLevin @Sen_JoeManchin @SenJohnMcCain

@clairecmc @SenBillNelson @SenJackReed

@SenatorSessions @SenatorWicker

Remembering the Newtown Kids on Father's Day

On Mother's Day, I stumbled over a lovely essay by one of the Newtown Mothers...and it made me want to remember each of the kids. I would be especially angry if I were a Newtown mother, on Mother's Day. These kids should all still be with their parents and their schools. So, I tweeted about each of the kids in honor of Father's Day. Here's what I said:

• The 1st Father's Day after #newtown - we should remember the kids who were murdered that day, as a callous government doesn't care - WE DO!
• Remembering Emilie Parker who would've been 7 on 5/12, wanted to be Hermionie Granger for her birthday. #newtown
• Remembering Charlotte Bacon, in whose memory a Kindness Award was started. #newtown
• Remembering Jesse Lewis who wrote "Nurturing Healing Love" on a chalkboard at home before he was murdered. #newtown
• Remembering the rambunctious Noah Pozner whose twin sister was in another class. #newtown
• Remembering red-headed Daniel Barden whose dad taught him Jingle Bells on the piano on his last morning. #newtown
• Remembering Olivia Engel, who was a Daisy Girl Scout. #newtown
• Remembering Josephine Gay, who loved the water and whose parents set up a fund for autistic children. #newtown
• Remembering Dylan Hockley whose parents included a reading of Goodnight Moon at his memorial service. #newtown
• Remembering Madeleine Hsu who loved dogs and wearing pink. #newtown
• Remembering Catherine Hubbard who loved animals. Her parents asked for donations to an animal center. #newtown
• Remembering Chase Kowalski who loved sports & played baseball. #newtown
• Remembering Ana Marquez-Greene, who sang via video during her funeral. #newtown
• Remembering James Mattioli who always loved to sing. #newtown
• Remembering Grace McDonnell who loved the beach. #newtown
• Remembering Jack Pinto who was buried in a NY Giants jersey. #newtown
• Remembering Caroline Previdi whose favorite charity was The Toy Chest at her church. #newtown
• Remembering Jessica Rekos who wanted cowboy boots for Christmas. #newtown
• Remembering Avielle Richman whose Dad had been blogging about her adventures in 2012. #newtown
• Remembering Jonathan Wheeler who wanted to be a paleontologist. #newtown
• Remembering Allison Wyatt, an artistic girl who shared with strangers. #newtown
• We should never forget the children of #newtown, particularly on Father's Day. Write your representative - better gun laws save lives.

Never forget that these were the senators who cared more about the NRA's opinion of them than the 90% of the public who wants better background checks. Here are the Twitter accounts of these senators:

@SenAlexander @KellyAyotte @SenJohnBarrasso @MaxBaucus @SenatorBegich

@RoyBlunt @JohnBoozeman @SenatorBurr @SaxbyChambliss @SenDanCoates

@TomCoburn @JeffFlake @SenThadCochran @SenBobCorker @JohnCornyn

@MikeCrapo @SenTedCruz @SenatorEnzi @SenMikeLee @SenatorFischer

@GrahamBlog @ChuckGrassley @SenOrrinHatch @jiminhofe

@SenatorHeitkamp @SenDeanHeller @SenJohnHoeven @SenatorIsakson

@Mike_Johanns @SenRonJohnson @McConnellPress @JerryMoran

@lisamurkowski @SenRandPaul @robportman @SenMarkPryor @SenatorRisch

@SenPatRoberts @marcorubio @SenatorTimScott @SenatorSessions

@SenShelbyPress @SenJohnThune @DavidVitter @SenatorWicker