Leaving Jezebel for the Dogs

I don't frequent it much, but Jezebel is one of those several time-waster websites.

However, after reading one too many ridiculous articles defending, editorializing, and propagating ideas that I just can never stand behind, I am done. This particular article was entitled something like, "Is Pornography Good?" and then went on to argue that pornography has done good things for the world and for the safety and well-being of men and women. According to this article, which sited an academic paper in some journal (so at this point, the info is 3rd hand in the information age telephone game), increased internet pornography usage correlates with decreased rape in some areas of the country. So maybe it is like, an alternate healthy channel for people who are really rapists.

That is just so unacceptable.

Pornography is indefensible. Pornography destroys people's lives and their relationships. It is a force for evil. Period.

I've spent a lot of time in grey area and thinking about issues as in between right and wrong. I'm naturally very postmodern and I don't believe in binarisms and blah blah blah yadda yadda.

But I also spent a year talking to 13 year olds every day about what they should and shouldn't do and what is right and what is wrong. And no, i didn't have scientific studies backing up all the things i wanted them to believe were wrong--like that lying is wrong, or revenge is wrong, or that sexual exploitation is wrong. But the fact is that those things are wrong, and I don't have to prove that, and it is sad that I have to defend the point of view that they are wrong. It is sad that pornography could ever be considered to be okay when should be so obviously considered wrong.

The world could do with a lot more moralism, and a lot more people pointing fingers and saying "this is wrong!" especially when it comes to issues like pornography and modern sexuality.

So, Jezebel. you were a time waster anyway and your opinions and points of view were always too cynical anyway. Good bye.

Why I sometimes hate Rhode Island and Rhode Island hates me--an illustration

***Wrote this a couple of weeks ago, but didn't post it. here it is in all it's glory.

This morning, I got out of bed and immediately had to sit back down. I felt extremely extremely whoosey. I've been dehydrated and had heat sickness enough to know that that was probably it. And that though I love riding my bike to school, doing so during the first big heat wave of the year while I am already on my way to a heat stroke is probably not the best choice.

At this point I had missed the bus. which is a shame because they were free yesterday and are again today, because the ozone layer is really messed up or something and Rhode Island doesn't want you to drive your car. I could stay home, but I don't really know how to call about that, I would not want to leave my kids in the care of some other sub (for the sub's sake), and also, every day I don't work means I don't get $200, and i definitely wasn't $200 sick. I could walk, but that would still put me out in the sun for half an hour, and at this point I'd have to hussle to make it on time, which would only increase my need to hurl, probably.

So it was down to that awful, expensive, ozone-killing choice of taking a taxi to school. It wouldn't be that bad, it's not far. Probably less than $10. So I called on up. I was really lucky, I thought, because he came pretty fast. The dispatcher said 10 minutes and he was there in 7. Good. There was only 15 minutes to go before first period started. Good thing I had made copies the day before and was all set to got. I just needed to get there, and get there on time, and I was good.

When we pulled up to the school, i knew something was wrong. There was a very surprising lack of cars for this early in the morning. I saw two students get out of a car, walk up to the door, and then turn around and walk back down the stairs. Had something happened that I didn't know about? I mean, it was the middle of June! Surely school isn't canceled, what could you cancel school for? the heat? what is going on, seriously.

"There's a one hour delay," one of the students told me when I walked up to the door. Oh. My. Gosh Seriously?! I could have rode the %$*# bus! I walked into the school. There is this teacher that i don't particularly like standing by the desk. He reminds me of all the coach jock teachers that I didn't like because they were just as douchey as the jock students. And I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm stupid. "There's a delay?" I said.
"Yep" says douchey jock teacher.
"I didn't know that."
"I watch the news," he says, implying that i am a stupid idiot for daring not to watch the news. Who watches the news? The news is shit! TONIGHT AT 9--FIND OUT THAT THAT THING YOU LIKE WILL KILL YOU! I mean, seriously? What is school even canceled for, I still didn't know.

I go up to my room and long on to the internet, going right for Providence Public School District's homepage. Apparently, school has been delayed an hour for "wind damage." What the hell? Wind damage? What does that even mean, someone school's crappy roof got ripped off? And what, you are going to delay EVERY school in the district for this one school, and not only that, but can you freakin' fix a roof in one hour, if that even is what it is?

So awful. I could have taken the bus after all. Heck, I could have slept off the heat exhaustion for another half hour, walked at a snail's pace, and still made it in time.

But of course it is like this, because it is how everything has been in Rhode Island for me. You do everything you can in your power to make the most of a crappy situation, and you still get screwed over for it. And then, someone has the audacity to imply that it is all your own fault anyway because you should have known better/you were too stupid/why don't you watch the news.

But whatever.