50 parishes about to close down in Cleveland, due to lack of resources and priests. Good news. It’s beginning. . .

I am an ex-Catholic too, and find it amazing that you can’t undo your baptism (according to Them) by self-fiat. According to me, however, it’s done.

http://www.northlandposter.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?menu=1&item_no=p811&category=posters&keyword=Hall%20of%20Fame&newproduct=&discountproduct=

Hope has two daughters
Their names are Anger and Courage.
Anger at the way things are and
Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

The “nice and polite” obligation of women leads to a whole bunch of depression, I think. Is it any surprise that Utah has the highest use of antidepressants per capita of any state?

I don’t know about you, but as a feminist, at times people I know squirm at the word feminist. And some feminists squirm at the word “anger.” I’ve been told by the new age folks, the christian folks and the “secret” folks that experiencing anger attracts bad things to you, is not what the lord wants so you can count on punishment (if it is about feminist issues in particular…republican and Rush supported war is okay), and in general, anger destroys so you should take a pill or otherwise discard the anger as a moral flaw, particularly as a woman. I disagree. I think that both anger and grief are underrated and denied and its the denial creates mental health issues.

In going through my problems, a friend suggested medication and therapy (which she is doing during her child custody issues). Well, that’s okay. But really, if you are going through crappy times, well….you’re going to be angry, at times depressed, at times have grief. Gee, it is NATURAL to feel angry if you are experiencing an injustice or going through a crappy time. Remarkably, just to admit that often centers you better than a pill or a mantra chanting. I do not deny the help of modern psychological treatments, but to pathologicalize anger and grief routinely just makes us less able to see through the bullshit and ultimately, less healthy. It can postpone the facing the uncomfortable truths.

Take that energy and do something with it, don’t deny it. Of course, that is unladylike.

I have been off and on reading this blog and I admire how Twisty did not avoid saying things are crappy and saying that gee, cancer sucks and she had some negative feelings about it. I don’t believe anger and unladylike behavior, particularly of women, should be blamed on some causal spiritual level for every bleeping bad thing that happens to them. This is part of religious tyranny, even if it is a new age religion.

We have to take anger and put it with courage and get on with it and don’t deny the usefulness of either. This moves society along as well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7863699.stm

and rightly so.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Work-Mother-Household-Technology/dp/0465047327

argues that the domestic labour-saving technologies of the last 100 years or so actually had the effect of giving the wife-and-mother sole responsibility for domestic chores. Before these gadgets were common a lot of these chores generally required more than one person, and other family members as well as male and female servants shared the work (laundry, for example, took an entire day, and was extremely physically demanding, as well as requiring male assistance for things like building the fire for the hot water); thanks to the new household gadgets the men in the family were freed to do their guy things, and there was no excuse for lazy women to employ domestic help. So now there’s even more reason to tie the woman to the house and expect her to do all the chores unaided. This book was required reading for my history of technology class.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7941817.stm

HA! Damn snappy!

Wouldn’t it be great if that great leftist hope, La Lulu actually came out for legalizing all abortion in Brazil? Alas, it’s so much more politically expedient to chime in on the most extreme of cases while ignoring all those other bodies, left sick or dying, due to your fucking archaic laws.