Kaitlyn Hunt

I read this article this morning.  It's about the teenager in Florida who, after a lesbian relationship with a younger girl, has been kicked out of school.  Kaitlyn Hunt is 18, her girlfriend is 15.  The relationship started when the older girl was 17.

Ok, I have seen a lot of people calling attention to this about how unfair it is that this girl is being targeted for her gay relationship.  How the younger girl's parents are bigots and horrible people, etc etc etc.

It's true that perhaps the younger girl's parents did this out of spite, but you know that they aren't the first parents to do this. How many young adults every year are hit with charges of the same kind?  Come on, this isn't happening because Kaitlyn is gay...it's happening because Kaitlyn broke the law.  Yeah, I know that might an unpopular opinion.  The fact of the matter is, if you are 18, having a relationship with a younger person--same sex or not--is dangerous and could result in something like this happening.

I'm glad that there is a lot of support for this young woman.  Honestly, I don't feel that she did anything wrong, because I think the statutory rape laws are sometimes a little ridiculous.  And yes, the relationship started when she was 17...but that doesn't matter.  It's still against the law.

I'm sure that the parents are real assholes and they did this on purpose.  I'm not doubting that at all.  But it bothers me a little that so many people are making this about sexual orientation.  The headlines shouldn't read, '18-year-old charged for same-sex relationship.'  If she is being mistreated by the school (which it sounds like she has been) or by the media, that's a different story.  Honestly, I think making it out to be about sexual orientation is doing this girl and this entire situation a disservice.

I feel very frustrated by this whole thing.

Love

I am a good mother.

I have my flaws.  We all have our flaws.  Sometimes I'm impatient, sometimes I get frustrated.  I don't do as many craft things.  I don't read as much as I should.  I don't teach enough, although I try.  I yell, sometimes.  And there are times when I just want to be alone.

I love my child.  He is the most important thing in my life, hands down.  I would sacrifice anything and everything for him.  I would lay down my life for him.

The past few weeks, I have felt like a pretty terrible mother.  I get frustrated when Roland bites or pinches me, especially when he does it for no reason.  I feel stuck, because we're in a house that isn't really ours, and I just feel limited on what I can do with him.  The past few days with the nice weather has helped, but today was an especially rough day.

I am a good mother, despite my flaws, or maybe because of them.  I am raising my son the best way that I know how, and I am raising him surrounded with love (there are more cuddles and kisses than frustrated squawks, I promise.)

I'm going to stumble along the way and I'm going to fail.  I'm learning, too.  As I struggle to teach my son how to be a good person, I'm also struggling to teach myself how to be a better mother.

But I love my child more than anything.  I never doubt that.

Save the TaTas!

This morning, I woke up and read through my facebook, like ya do.  I saw the article about Angelina Jolie coming forward to discuss her double mastectomy.  All I could think was, 'That sucks, but I'm glad that she had it done and that she is healing and that she's coming forward to try to raise awareness.'  It was on the morning news shows, cause, well, tits are a big deal, you know.

And then I didn't think anything else of it.  Apparently, there are corners of the internet that did.

Take a look at this.  You may want to throw things and punch people in the face.  I know I did.

Yeah.  That's right.  There are people out there in Internet Land that are shaming Angelina Jolie for making this massively painful health decision.  Do you really think it's easy to decide to lop off your boobs?  I mean, do you think that people WANT to go out and have double mastectomies?  I mean, except for the people who are crying that she did it for attention.

Jolie tested positive for the breast cancer gene.  Her mother died of ovarian cancer when she was in her 50's.  This mother did what was best for her family and was tested, and it came back positive.  Only one in 500 women carry the gene, but she does.  She was also told that she had a terrifying 87% chance of developing breast cancer.  87%.  87%!  Those are not good odds.

So she had the radical double mastectomy.  She's already had her reconstructive surgery.  She is healing, physically and emotionally.  And best of all, she now only has a 5% chance of developing breast cancer.

I am amazed--as I usually am when it comes to this woman--at her strength through this.  She made a heartbreaking decision after terrifying news.  She had this major surgery, and she was able to complete it without anyone knowing about it.  Not a single damn tabloid.  Good for her.

In this article, she talks about her medical choice.  It's beautifully written, and I have to be honest, it made me cry a little.  

The people who are talking shit about Jolie need to be slapped.  That makes me furious.  Instead of being joyful that she caught it before it was too late and that she is using her celebrity status to raise awareness for this horrible disease.  1 in 8 women will have invasive breast cancer at some point in her life, and 1 in 36 will die of it.  Jolie is calling more attention to it, particularly to the importance of early screening if you are at high risk.

Good for her.  I wish her a speedy recovery.  I am so happy she caught this early, and that she will be around for her children.

And to leave you all with a more amusing take on this...thanks, Wil Wheaton.

Obama is a Muslim?!? NO WAY!

Obama is not a Muslim.  Let's say that again, shall we...

Obama. Is. Not. A. Muslim.

Ok, now that we got that out in the open.

IF Obama WERE a Muslim (which he isn't) why would it matter?  I know that I didn't vote on him based on his religious views!  And frankly, if you are voting for someone based solely on their religious views, then you're doing it wrong.  It doesn't matter if he's a Muslim or a Christian or a damn Pastafarian.  We voted for him based on the politics, right?  We voted for him based on what we thought he could do for the country.  I voted for him because out of the options presented, he was the lesser of two evils.

I don't like everything Obama has done.  There have been moments where I've been intensely frustrated and upset with the current political climate, from the President down.  But when I talk about being unhappy with the President, I talk about being unhappy because of his Politics.  Not because he's black or because he has gray hair or because his kids have a dog instead of a cat.  It's because of the Politics.

I'm getting pretty tired of all this.  I don't care if people don't like the guy, really I don't.  And I don't mind debating that.  But man...the personal attacks have got to stop!

I know there are a lot of people who go on about, 'If we don't like Obama, we're called racists!!!!'  No.  If you don't like Obama for bullshit reasons, or if you come straight out and say that you don't like him because he's black...THEN you are a racist.  If you don't like Obama because you think he's a Muslim or because you don't think he was really born in the US or any of the other shit reasons...what would you call yourself?

I had an argument on facebook tonight (yeah, I know, I need to not waste my time with that) that made me see red.  The person was going on about how Obama was a Muslim, and how he was bringing Islam to the US and outlawing all other religions.  All I could do was gape at my screen and try not to scream.

If you are going to make accusations like that, you'd best be prepared to back them up.  If you are going to claim that Christians in the Military are being kicked out because they pray in public, then I want to see some evidence of that.  And something from a hardcore conservative website isn't going to cut it.  Sorry.  You'd feel the same if I did it with a hardcore liberal website.

Yeah.  That's just really frustrating for me.  Like I said--don't like the guy, that's fine.  But this crap is not ok.

Abercrombie & Fitch

I'm a little pissed off about this.  Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries has made some incredibly shitty comments.  Basically, he only wants skinny and pretty people wearing his clothes.  The rest of the world isn't worthy.

A&F clothes don't go any higher than a women's size 10.  The average woman in America today wears a 12-14.  Personally, I will never wear a size 10, no matter how much weight I lose.  That's ok though, because I wouldn't shop there even if I could.

Abercrombie & Fitch has the right to create whatever clothes they want.  Lane Bryant caters to women who are a size 14 and up.  I don't really care about all that (although I think it's stupid for companies to cut out huge chunks of the population.)  They could create clothes in just a size 2 or in just a size 32.  That doesn't matter.  What matters here are the comments that Jeffries made and the attitude that he has copped.  When asked, 'Why don't you carry anything larger than a 10' the correct response would probably have been, 'We create clothes for our target audience' not 'Fat and Ugly people don't deserve my clothes.'

Of course, it's not the first time their CEO has made shitty comments.  How about the time he said A&F won't donate clothes to the poor because only people of a certain stature should be able to wear their clothes.  Yeah.  Seriously.  This guy is a complete douche.

You know what, you can look at someone who is overweight and you can think to yourself, 'That person is disgusting.'  Hey, I look at some people and I think that too.  Personally, I don't care what people think of me.  But you have no right to mock them or to try to pretend that you are making shitty comments out of some sense of concern for that person.  If you aren't my doctor, then you frankly have no business talking to me about my weight or my health.

So yeah.  I'll never shop at Abercrombie & Fitch.  I'll likely never buy my children clothes there either.  I don't appreciate the cruel comments and the fat shaming.  These people should know better.