Stupid Courage Campaign made me smear my eyeliner.

This made me cry, just like Kate Harding and all the other trendy feminist bloggers.


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

CPSIA Update: someone out there paid attention!

So! A little while ago I posted about the CPSIA. Just thought that you'd all like to know what's the what on that one:

As you may be aware, beginning next month many of America’s small and home businesses will be forced to radically alter their practices and products as prescribed by the burdensome Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). This bill mandates stringent and overreaching federal standards, under the guise of safety requirements that will unfortunately threaten the well-being and further livelihood of thousands of America’s workers and their families. It was my position when the bill was being debated on the Senate floor, as it remains today, that this bill could have -- and should have -- better balanced the need for safety with a common-sense business approach.

You can read the rest on Senator DeMint's blog.

Via The Storque.

Depts. of Awesome, Arts.

Two notes here.

First, lets play with dolls!

Second, Quincy Jones and others are lobbying (apparently Mr. Jones is "begging") for the instatement of a cabinet position for the arts. There's a petition that you can sign here.

*drags over soapbox, stands upon it*

Ahem.

Arts funding is good for the economy, period. It reflects and improves upon the fields of education and health, and the arts are the ultimate expression of any culture. The majority of other developed, first-world nations (EU, I'm lookin' in your direction...) have Ministers of Culture, etc. to advise their leaders. Therefore, it stands to reason that if we want, as a nation, to be taken seriously as having anything other than a culture of warmongering and conspicuous consumption, this is a critical post.

Art is not a luxury. It is an imperitive. In the deadliest of wars, the most oppressive of regimes, during times of the greatest peril, there is art. If we are truly a world leader, how could we ignore this very human need, perhaps the most basic non-biological imperitive we endure?

*decend, remove soapbox*

Via Slog.

PS: In other Obama news, check out the new link: Obameter! Not so shabby for your first couple days, Sir...

Mood.

This post pretty much summed up my feelings re: the Obama Administration:

Things will piss me off about Obama, I'm sure, and some things will elate me: but the baseline is changed from pissed off to happy, and that's a huge shift.

Via Slog.

"Pop".

Sitting in his seat, a seat broad and broken
In, sprinkled with ashes,
Pop switches channels, takes another
Shot of Seagrams, neat, and asks
What to do with me, a green young man
Who fails to consider the
Flim and flam of the world, since
Things have been easy for me;
I stare hard at his face, a stare
That deflects off his brow;
I'm sure he's unaware of his
Dark, watery eyes, that
Glance in different directions,
And his slow, unwelcome twitches,
Fail to pass.
I listen, nod,
Listen, open, till I cling to his pale,
Beige T-shirt, yelling,
Yelling in his ears, that hang
With heavy lobes, but he's still telling
His joke, so I ask why
He's so unhappy, to which he replies . . .
But I don't care anymore, cause
He took too damn long, and from
Under my seat, I pull out the
Mirror I've been saving; I'm laughing,
Laughing loud, the blood rushing from his face
To mine, as he grows small,
A spot in my brain, something
That may be squeezed out, like a
Watermelon seed between
Two fingers.
Pop takes another shot, neat,
Points out the same amber
Stain on his shorts that I've got on mine and
Makes me smell his smell, coming
From me; he switches channels, recites an old poem
He wrote before his mother died,
Stands, shouts, and asks
For a hug, as I shink, my
Arms barely reaching around
His thick, oily neck, and his broad back; 'cause
I see my face, framed within
Pop's black-framed glasses
And know he's laughing too.


By Barack Obama, age 19.

*****

Oh, but he's not really the president.

Who the hell is Barry Soetoro anyway?

Oh, well.

Via Slog, HuffPost.

Obama is beautiful world.

That was satisfying. I wish Lowery could have given the invocation as well...but, no matter. It's done. Let's all hug and get along.

In that spirit, I now present the yellow getting mellow:

Tomorrow belongs to them.

Okay, I'm a bleeding heart. Everyone should love one another. So I was on the hand-holding bandwagon of Inaugural speakers until this:



The sun on the meadow is summery warm
The stag in the forest runs free
But gathered together to greet the storm
Tomorrow belongs to me

The branch on the linden is leafy and green
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea (Gold to the sea)
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen
Tomorrow belongs to me

Now Fatherland, Fatherland, show us the sign
Your children have waited to see
The morning will come
When the world is mine
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me

The babe in his cradle is closing his eyes
The blossom embraces the bee
But soon says the whisper, arise, arise
Tomorrow belongs to me
Tomorrow belongs to me

Via Huffington Post.

Save small businesses!

Sorry that I haven't posted for a while. We'll have to save the updates for a while.

In the meantime, here is something important that I got from a dear friend today. I will try to have more links about this up soon.

*****

Hello everyone...

I've never ever sent a wide reaching email to everyone who's on my personal email list before, and I apologize if this is the first email you've received from me in a very long time (or if you don't even remember who I am?)...but this is very important to everyone - as the impact will be great for everyone - business owners and customers alike. Please pass this information along to everyone you know!

As you may or may not know, the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act) is coming into effect on February 10, 2009. Our soon-to-be-EX-President, GWB already passed it into law and we are now facing an epic battle to save our small businesses!

In a very small nutshell, the CPSIA mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and goods marketed to children 12 and under. The manufacturer must permanently label each item with a date and batch number. Failure to do so would result in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fines for each occurance. (You can read a very good summary of the law at http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/Home)

Sounds good on the surface, right? Of course! I totally believe in the assurance of safety in the marketplace! However, the wording of the CPSIA is too far-reaching and would result in the removal and destruction of ALL handmade children's goods on market shelves today. You see, when this law takes effect, it will be illegal to sell or even donate inventory manufactured before Feb. 10th without the proper certification in place. It would even be illegal for you to try to sell your used kids clothing on Ebay! As a result, all of these items will be tossed out to fill our landfills - never reaching the hands of even a needy child.

But wait, testing is good, right? Yes! Of course! But consider the impact on your small/micro-business friends who already make handmade toys and kid's clothes responsibly out of known safe materials with standard safety in mind. They are already bound by current laws to create safe products. But, the CPSIA does not distinguish between small/micro businesses and big business. As written, the law encompases each SKU made by the company and requires that each size be tested as well as each color. Add that up and testing will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars - within the reach for huge corporations, but far beyond the capabilities of most small businesses.

As a result of this law, it is speculated that small business funding will be cut, banks will retract loans and businesses will shut their doors since there is no way anyone could run those numbers and come up with a profit! In the Wall Street Journal, Rick Woldenberg was quoted as describing February 10, 2009 as "National Bankruptcy Day" (source: http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/national-bankruptcy-day/).

All in all, this will GREATLY impact ALL small companies who make anything for kids under 12 including all handmade clothing, costumes, toys, blankets, diapers and even baby carriers. It will impact parents, grandparents, relatives and friends with kids by, at minimum, ensuring the removal of all unique, handmade items from the shelves of shops, boutiques and stores all across the country.

While I completely believe in product safety and testing to ensure the protection of our children, this act as written will surely force many, if not the majority of small/micro business owners to close their doors and cease the production of the products and further push our economy downward as hundreds of thousands of people flood the already dried-up job market.

We need to ask our Congressmen and Senators to rewrite the CPSIA to support our country's small businesses and exclude all items made in batches of less than 5,000 units per year or manufactured within the USA and trusted countries with established toy safety regimes such as Canada and the European Union and that they all be held exempt from third party testing requirements. If they still feel that testing should be required, then we should ask them to provide free testing services for USA manufacturers and importers from Europe or Canada with revenues less than one million dollars.

I encourage you to read the links below and do your own research before writing to your Congressmen and Senators. After I fully comprehended the impact of such a law, I signed the petitions and emailed my Congressman and Senators right away (using a modified version of the Handmade Toy Alliance letter).

By taking a stand, we can save our country's small businesses. Thank you in advance for your action and support of the handmade community.

Sincerely,

Marlo Miyashiro
Jeweler / Teacher / Mentor
Organizer, EtsyRAIN.com meetupSeattle, WA


marlom.com (jewelry website - day job)
tote2go.com (recycled fabric bags - new line)
imakecutestuff.com (personal blog)
imakecutestuff.etsy.com (etsy shop - crafts)
marlom.etsy.com (etsy shop - jewelry)

HRC and the end of a campaign.

Check out the comments as well.

I know that I'm getting a skosh too sensitive to some of my male colleagues' attitudes towards sexism. I know that a couple of ECB's quotations were undoubtably "reverse sexism".

But the comments made me sick.

I don't like talking about the fact that I call myself a feminist for much the same reason that I prefer not to discuss my faith overmuch: labeling oneself anything tends to create a certain amount of censure in some percentage of other people and I am combative enough to have to know how to pick my battles. As Becky says, feminist is the other f-word. But it's exhausting that many people around me (mostly men but often enough women) just don't see anything wrong with our deeply misogynistic society. Regardless of HRC's campaign strategy, that should have been apparent to all. Course, maybe that's just me and my bitter, bitter reaction to life in the (also deeply-misogynistic) theater.

Gah. Keeping up a fight is exhausting.

I'm a-go to bed now.

Oh, and via, of course, Slog.

I'd like to share...

...this.

It accurately sums up my feelings on Obama's recent primary win over HRC.

I'm certainly not voting for McCain, BTW. DO NOT WANTZ four more years.

If McCain wins, I will likely expatriate.

Re: "Gender Stereotypes Trump Racial Stereotypes in Every Social Science Test."

I'm too sick to comment except, as a professional woman, DUH.

Re: Changing names.

When I was six, I found out that women changed their names when they got married. I thought this was tremendously unfair. I asked my mom why boys got to keep their name and infect other people with it.

She didn't give me a historical or sociological answer but told me that, when she got married to my father, it was against the law to keep your maiden name. She said she never would have changed it if she had the option. When I asked her why she didn't change it back now, she sighed and said that it was too much paperwork and hassle.

I still think it's ridiculous. Why should I change my name? I like my name. Why don't you change yours? As for kids, the only person who can definitively prove that it's theirs is the one who drops it from their vagina, buddy. A name isn't going to change that.

Via ECB.

Re: Meth Labs.

I am issuing a blanket apology for my post regarding meth labs. I should never have linked to a site that tells you what's in crystal meth. I am very, very sorry. Very sorry. In my defense I can only say that I was on Sudafed.

Don't mess with iodine crystals, kids. They're gross.

But this is still fascinating, from a chemistry perspective. These talented young people who run meth labs should make something of themselves, go into something useful, like chemical engineering.

You know, it's a good thing I'm a white woman from an East Coast politico family, otherwise who knows where* my sense of humor would get me?

the tussin, the tussin
put it down like it was nothing
robocop couldn't stop me puking and flushin
no balls to be bustin, no fightin, no cussin
just love for a drug called robitussin**

*Gitmo.
**Technically, that's dextromethorphan, the most ridiculous drug ever.

Meth Labs: Ruining Influenza for Sober People Since 1993.

I hate how you can't get pseudoephedrine in Washington State any more without going up to the prescription counter. Stupid meth labs.

I'm still sick. I can't talk and walking four blocks to the store exhausts me. I have no appetite and average about five hours of sleep a night. I can't not work because I'm broke. I can't go to the doctor because crazy fuckwits in this country can't understand why universal health care is a good idea. (I do not have private insurance through my job.)

Bleah.

So, no good blogs from me until I feel less terrible.

The First Woman President?

Feminist writers and others have debated to death about whether being a woman means supporting Hillary. I don’t think it does. As a woman, however, I support Clinton’s record on gender issues—which is an entirely different thing than supporting a candidate because of her gender.

Erica C. Barnett's article on Slog re: HRC's recent visit to Seattle.