I’m angry because at about 10:30 PM last Wednesday a woman was accosted in an alley near my home and raped. There was no local news coverage, and a full week went by before I was even made aware of this vicious act.
It’s bad enough that I had to worry about being killed tonight because I walked home from Suburban Station in a rain storm without any money in my wallet (a sufficient provocation to warrant death from a mugger), but to know that rapists lurk in my alleys? I’m very frustrated.
And yet, I still can’t understand why Middle America thinks the threat of terrorism warrants the loss of our inalienable rights. We live with all these risks…you live in a fantasy land. We are not afraid. We would give up no rights to protect ourselves. You call us coddlers of terrorists and tell us the NSA must spy without warrants. Fuck you.
I apologize in advance for my tone and the breadth of my condemnation. I’m just angry and frustrated.
it seems like the further removed a group of people are from the real threat, and not the made-up propaganda-induced one, the more disconnected they are to practical ways to deal with it. I realize that it’s a pretty broad brush to use for painting, but I see it all the time with immigration. In fact, there are tons of studies out, which I’m too lazy to go find at the moment, where it shows the people who have less contact with the immigrant population are more likely to be hostile towards them, with the reverse situation opposite.
Sorry to hear about the horrible violence in your area, BooMan. I hope the POS who attacked that woman was found.
that show that people who are acquainted with gay and lesbian people are more open to the idea of gay marriage and other equal protections under the law.
It’s easy to demonize people you’ve never met.
And by finding someone you know nothing about to demonize, it’s easy to put all the blame for the problems in your life on them, instead of looking for the real cause? Out of work? Can’t find a job? Naaaah, can’t be the fault of a government that supports crooked companies that send jobs overseas…it’s gotta be them damn immigrants…
for being fucking pissed off; it’s the attitude of those who shrug it off as “same old same old” that barely rates page B7 coverage in the local fishwrap that fucking pisses me off.
I wonder what the race of the victim was — and if that played into the media decision to declare “nothing to see here…move along, folks…”
I wrote just about a week ago that I can no longer live in fear…stories like this test my resolve. So many people live in fear of terrorists from far away, especially those in areas least likely to be targeted…while we have home-grown purveyors of terror walking our streets every day…
Rant or not (but deservedly so in this case) I thank you for reminding all of us (female and male) to please be very careful out there. Stay in well-lit areas, walk in the middle of the sidewalk (to be further away from storefront lurkers and further away from car lurkers – (which alone makes me want to cry about this effed up, “middle of the sidewalk” society in which we live).
If I may, please, I’d like to return to a past rant of yours…regarding the always contentious right to smoke. (As an aside, I’m a very, very polite smoker, who doesn’t smoke around anyone who is eating, and who keeps it outside on patios…the corners of patios) Well, I was meeting a friend on Friday evening, and she was coming from the far south, I was coming from the far north of the Cities, and we agreed upon a city in between. All I wanted was a glass of wine and a couple relaxing smokes. (After the past few weeks, that’s all this girl needed) But, upon our arrival, I found out that not only could I not smoke anywhere in the bar, I also couldn’t smoke on the patio….I couldn’t even smoke in the “aisle of shame” outside the restaurant. Turns out the whole city is smoke free – indoors and out.
In line with that, I need to give a lot of credit to my father-in-law – who is well known for his rants. At a recent city council meeting, my (non-smoker) father-in-law went off on quite the tear about proposed smoking bans in his city, ending his tear with (this slightly paraphrased comment) …What do you expect people to do after the tobacco companies get them addicted. The only place left will be a helicopter because you’re trying to take away all of our civil rights on the land of this nation.” (He’s quite the notorious “city council ranter” and would never miss a Monday meeting, even when he’d be coming straight from chemo or radiation treatments. Now there’s an activist!)
g’night and please be safe BooMan (we need ya, dude!)
Careful there Anomalous. I doubt you’ll get much sympathy here about your (my) smoking rights being taken away. While everyone is entitled to breathe clean air, it seems like some won’t be happy until smoking is banned completely, even in low Earth orbit. Extremism is ugly, no matter what side it comes from.
Rapists lurk everywhere Booman.
They lurk in churches, in work places, in schools, daycare centers, within normal looking families, in police cars, and dark alleys.
I wish I could buy a few bumper stickers from you so I could lower the chances of you being murdered because your pockets are empty, but I’ve not owned a credit card in a few years now. My use of cash marks me as an outsider, a second class citizen because I don’t play by the rules and keep myself chained to the system.
Cash used to be almost as good as real money ;o)
I guess we are in the same club, but then again being a Hispanic in this Administration I was already marked as a second class citizen.
Anyway, fuck the credit cards, I don’t have any too.
I don’t feel bad.
I feel bad for so many others though, who stay chained to the system and are up to their ears in paper debt. I have my own debts. Plenty of them, but it used to amuse me to notice how many of those riding around in new cars, or whipping out their credit cards at Christmas time, would look at me funny, as if I were the poor one. Just to see the reaction in a xmas shopping line when you use cash is hilarious. There’s something so backward about it.
I’m okay. My bank’s ATM system had a holiday glitch. And I should not have picked on a region but a mindset. Nonetheless, there are a lot of people in this country that live with a high level of danger of suffering violence from strangers. And they are the least likely demographic to support Patriot Act and beyond levels of government power to counteract it.
The only area where my demographic really favors greater government power over our rights is on gun control, and that is because we have bullets whizzing around our neighborhoods.
A well deserved rant considering there is no area of government that has not suffered from the incompetent, idiotic, liars of BushCo.
In February, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) issued a press release, Bush Administration Guts Police Funding, Places Communities at Risk:
Of course cutting funding for law enforcement is nothing new for the Cheney Misadministration and it started before 9/11. From the September 2003 Washington Monthly article, Bush’s War On Cops:
Dudya is taking a page from his hero, the Great (mis)Communicator. All the social ills that are happening here in America just don’t exist, and if they are, they are caused by folks who are not like you – the unknown faceless boogieman.
If you are looking for some Summertime reading along these lines, try Terri Jentz’s “Strange Piece of Paradise”. Makes you wonder whether doing something about violence towards women could not be a Democratic
initiative.
Booman, thank you for caring so much.
This administration, aided by the MSM, has really screwed with people’s minds. Ultimate safety is unattainable. Even if one stayed home all day, there is always radon or a slippery bath tub to contend with. We are asked to give up our freedoms to be “safe,” but how many people would be willing to give up driving to avoid the possibility of being in an accident?
Violence against women is not a high national priority, even though studies show one out of three women will experience sexual assault in their lives. If one out of three of all of us experienced violence from a “terrorist,” think of what the reaction would be.
Maybe if the woman had been raped by a Muslim, the incident would have received publicity.
And, Booman, take care of yourself and be as safe as possible.
a few days ago on the front page was a story of a National Guard who is so HAPPY to be returning to Afghanistan. He’s HAPPY! His family is so HAPPY and PATRIOTIC.
I was about to crumple the piece of shit paper, it’s a freebie this week, and noticed that on page SEVEN… there was an article of a woman who had been asleep in her house and awakened by tHREE “MEN”. They raped her from 9pm to 3 am. They left her and 5 days later they caught ONE of the men.
At the time of the article this happened a WEEK ago.
Not far from my town. Nothing on the news, nothing before as I have been getting this free offer for ten days… )they’d better not try to charge me either(
Oh the “news” is on… something about Jessica Simpson dating a man a year younger than some guy named Nick. Ooooooooooooooooh.
Like a lot of Americans, I too do not want to see another terrorist attack in this country. However I have difficulty understanding how BushCo. policies make us any safer from the outside threat. In the meantime, domestic programs that have measurably reduced crime in our streets in the past face funding cuts to reduce our deficit spending while our military budget is out of control. Our economy teeters on the edge of catastrophe. Mortgage foreclosures rise at alarming rates as credit card debt spins out of control. The MSM doesn’t recognize a real story when it hits them in the face. I’m glad folks like you still do. BTW, happy belated 4th!
There is a letter to the editor in my local morning paper (Lancaster PA Intel Journal) that on reading makes me just dizzy. This guy says that arresting any American troops for killing innocent Iraqis is wrong. War allows them to kill anyone they wish (I guess), and we are not supporting our troops and allowing them to get the job done (what job?) by arresting them for any killing actions.
When folks talk like this, you get the idea that there is a great divide in this Country between those who can see the rule of law and end objectives, and those who don’t see or think about anything worth while. Scary, scary people.
I saw a sign at a protest once that said, “Killing the Enemy is not Murder”
It was held up by a young woman with so much hate in her face. This was a counter protestor.
I wonder how’d she feel if she realized that Bush and his Regime ARE the enemey to many.
I also see “Kill them all and let G-d sort em out”.
Also, I have been told a few times that I should be dead for not supporting the Presuhdunce.
When a uniformed military “man” gives you the slit throat gesture… your blood stops and you realize this country is truly a fascist pos pile of waste.
Each day it gets worse.