Rather than actually write my own post (hey it's almost 0300, even for me that's late) I'mma post a link to a remarkable young woman of my acquaintance and ask that you ponder it.
I've been reading and researching about honey bees for the last few
months. I'm still reading and researching but after double checking my
local zoning (no goats allowed sadly but poultry and bees are fine) I
really want to go ahead and start a hive this spring.
I also want to have poultry again (we had at various times in my
childhood, ducks, turkeys, and chickens) but as that's a much greater
investment of time and money (hard to leave your poultry for a long
weekend without someone willing to check in on them etc.) I'm going for
bees firstly.
Also bees are straight up fascinating.
Some of the books I've poured through in preparation are:
As well as countless posts on the invaluable site www.beesource.com and the incredibly valuable forum for the site.
Books I intend to read ASAP to round out my 'knowings' before I take the plunge, get a hive, and hopefully join the Pierce County Beekeeper's Association
in order to learn more, order bees on the cheap and eventually
(hopefully) rent the honey extractor owned by the organization and like,
be an apiarist, are:
I should note that a lot of these books have redundant information but
so far each (Even those by the same author/s) have been worth reading.
I also found this incredibly charming title from 1914 (apparently originally published in 1901), The Life of the Bee
by Maurice Maeterlink at the ginormous used bookstore I venture to
every few months. It is practically and scientifically spurious but
chock full of loving and vivid descriptions of bees. Mr. Maeterlink
clearly loved and was fascinated by bees and nature.
Why bees? A fair question. I use beeswax for all kinds of neat things
around the house and such so I could certainly use that up ironically
it's the honey I'm mostly concerned about. Like most of us in the good
'ol United States I've grown up on a diet with a lot of refined sugar
and never really developed the same taste for honey. Don't get me wrong I
*like* honey but I just don't consume much of it. I use it in tea and
occasionally on toast but that's really about it. So I may need to
either let the bees keep the vast majority of the honey (I don't
necessarily see a problem with this particularly during the first year)
or make pals with some farmer's market stall owner or some such. Although, honey has far more applications than just culinary, in addition
to being the only food we eat that is made by insects it also never
ever spoils. It crystallizes but you can heat it right up and it'll
liquefy again. Not to mention it has antibacterial properties and was
and is a wound and burn treatment. It's kind of astonishing stuff.
Whatever the case since I can't have a yard-taming goat and I don't
trust my brains to be reliable enough to remember to feed and water
something that is wholly dependent on me (unlike our two cats, who, as
cats do, absolutely make sure they are fed watered and pampered
appropriately) bees it is!
Okay so I'm just one chick with a handful of followers, an irregularly updated blog, and a house I never leave (hey you try working from home and not having a car) but I'mma rant about Prop 74 and why we as decent people need to approve equal marriage rights. (note there will be more Rants in future regarding this and related topics, if this is not your cup of tea, too fucking bad there's an entire internet out there).
Check out the Seattle Times special on September 16th
Gay marriage does not harm anyone. Period. The fact that someone's religion tells them that a behavior in society is wrong is irrelevant. This is (theoretically?) a secular nation which means that your religious beliefs are (ought to be) a non-starter. Obviously this isn't the case in thirty-fucking-two states (not to mention the repeated failure of ENDA).
Let's take a moment to discuss the definition of secular, shall we? Bare in mind I am fully aware that secular on paper means fuck all in reality but still let's give it a shot eh? sec·u·lar
So let's focus on the top 3 'cause honestly I've never ever seen / heard the latter 2 usages.
Alrighty then, basically what we have is a word that is defined as devoid of religion. The idea is that our nation and thus our laws are to avoid favoring a particular religion or, indeed, any religion. Period.
Now as thinking aware people we all know this may be truer of the United States of America than in other areas of the world but it is also way more true in others (say huuuuuge chunks of Western Europe? Yeah those folks).
We know that religion is at the root of a lot of the LGBT discrimination rampant in our communities and society. We know this, again, because we are thinking and aware people.
The hilariously pathetic thing is that the go-to justification passage for this evil behavior (yeah it's fucking evil, I said it) in the Bible is not only from the Old Testament, a portion of the bible that many modern Christians seem to forget isn't exactly meant to be addressing them but rather the Jewish nation and people, y'know the ones a lot of these self-same shitheels damn to hell as godless Christ killers? So let's set that aside for a moment. There's still another glaring well known error here, the book they cite? Leviticus? It's a bunch of laws for priests. I'm not saying that homosexuality etc was de rigueur and a-okay for laypeople back in the day. I have no idea either way. What I am saying is that taking the sacred words from a text directed at the holy persons of a people you likely despise (either actively or through that bizarre 'pity' so many of these particular 'Christians' cough up the 'you poor Jews just don't know the word of Jay-sus!' vibe) in order to abuse, disenfranchise, violate, and perpetrate violence against another group of people is beyond hypocrisy.
Never mind the insanely ridiculous other 'laws' outlined in Leviticus that these fuckheads cheerfully ignore outright.
So that's it for the religious argument.
What else? Seriously, what else? Studies have shown time and time again that children raised in LGBT homes are not harmed in any way. In fact many experienced less abuse than in a home with heterosexual caregivers.
It's not going to erode our moral fabric but rather, in my very not humble opinion, strengthen it. How anyone can say we're the home of the free with a straight face while this (and a myriad of other institutional and societal injustices rage freely) mystifies me. We've never been the land of the free. Ever. But, we have been and can still be the land of the brave, every time someone stands up against bullshit injustice that's an act of bravery. Whether it was the freedom riders in the 60s, abolitionists in the 1800s, Suffragettes here and in the UK in the 20s up through today (if you think women are equal thee and me shall chat) OWS protestors today or Pride organizers these are brave people that are putting themselves in the sometimes literal line of fire to demand an end to societally condoned malicious cruelty. So stand up in November, be one of the brave, look your friends, coworkers, neighbors, and fellow human fucking beings in the eyes the day after election day and be able to say with a calm and easy heart: Yes, I voted for equal marriage because I give a shit and I will not allow bigotry hiding behind and within a religion to justify abusing my people. I will not stand by and let this pointless fucking cruelty and abuse continue, I voted for equality not because I'm a saint but because I have the fucking gumption to say enough and start turning the goddamned tide, okay?
Because if you don't? If you vote against equal marriage? How can you look anyone in the eye again? How can you stand to know that you stood before thinking, feeling, wounded and disenfranchised human beings, your people and said yes, I believe you are a second class being, yes I believe you should have your rights restricted or revoked simply for falling in love with another human being.
How the fuck can you do that and consider yourself decent? No really, do you want your nieces and nephews or grand kids or shit your own kids to look up from a history book in ten years and ask you about Prop 74 and have to fucking lie because you were afraid or blinded by talking heads and their dire threats this November?
And once you've said yes to Prop 74 and equal marriage turn your attention to D.C. and help us all be a nation that's a little bit closer to our ideals of equality and secularism. Take the pointless hatred out of our laws and stop favoring a single religious view that is damning all of our people to pointless fucking arbitrary suffering and collusion in the same.
And now I leave you with a clip from the West Wing, a clip that left me on the verge of tears and cheering when I first saw it. Yeah I know it's circled the net a bajillion times but I love it so there. (feel free to post other vids etc in the comments, anyone gets trollish you're out and as the blog runner I am god as far as moderation goes. If you're worried I'll knee jerk negative comments you ought to check out some of the earliest posts on this blog and the bigoted comments that were NOT removed)
So yeah, August, what's to say about August? It's usually the hottest and driest month. Happily this year was not a repeat of the 'lets-pretend-we-all-live-in-an-oven-shall-we'? Weather of a couple years ago. Well, three...I think. I remember I was still taking courses at Pierce and I graduated from Pierce in '09 so maybe it was even '08 whatever the fuck, the point is, it was viciously fucking hot. Hot like public cooling centers and people freaking DYING from the heat hot.
So that was good.
Aside from that...not much to report.
I did get a delicious lateral promotion at work from the phones to chat. Chat has been interesting and wonderful and weird.
Oh wait ha ha yeah. August.
My oldest brother and his family visited from Japan! I finally got to meet my only and firstly nephew. Great kid amazingly awesome. Not sure if that's 'cause he's Japanese or he's just naturally a bad ass toddler being a hybrid of two awesome families and all. He only freaked out like twice and considering all the traveling, the heat, the strangers, everything being, looking, feeling, and smelling different? That's seriously admirable.
It was kind of shocking to see my brother with his son though. I mean yeah I know on an intellectual level that we're all adults etc. I know this. Still, seeing him with that kid it finally sank in. That little boy is my blood and my brother for all his faults and wonders is a really good father. It's surreal.
Which makes me wonder, at what point do we actually become adults? When puberty wraps up, takes down the tape and picks up the oil cloth, wipes its hands clean and tips its hat on the way out the door? When we reach an arbitrary age? What age? 14, 18, 21, 25, 30?
I don't have any answers but I do know that while I'm a kid at heart I also gave up my 'ideal' plans to help save the family home, I served in the military, I did all these wise and responsible things - and a few dumbass things too. But I didn't really feel grown up, not completely, until I saw the kid I used to get into fights with holding that boy.
