The Virtues of Cheese
It has them all. I would eat it constantly if I weren’t lactose intolerant (further evidence that I died and am currently in Hell).
A Stranger in a Strange Land (with apologies to Heinlein)
My new medication has made actually doing things a lot easier. Before this I would still think about all the things I really needed to take care of, but I wouldn’t actually do them.
Well, I am doing so now, and one of those things is exercising. Weight gain is a hazard of antidepressants, and I’ve had a lot of jobs where I sit a lot (my current job is one of them). Depression makes it easier to take the mental path of least resistance, and it is far easier to say “fuck it” and flop back into bed/play a video game/eat terrible stuff/&c.
In any event, I cannot even tell you if I’ve ever been in a gym since high school (do they even call them gyms anymore?). Until now they were foreign lands to me, strange and somewhat intimidating because I was completely ignorant of the culture. Well, I had to ask my friend (who works out regularly) what to do. He has been quite helpful in giving me some ideas, but he’s a tiny, lithe fellow and doing this for a while, which means it’s probably a lot easier for him. Considering I’m a large and tall guy who has never done a push up since I was a freshman, I’ve got a LONG way to go. But, I bit the bullet and started up regardless, so I’m still trying to get used to it. My schedule prohibits working in the mornings or evenings, so I go to 24 hour places after I finish work at midnight; while this is nice because of the quiet and absence of jostling to secure the last treadmill, it also makes it virtually impossible to have a friend come with you and work out together, which would make this much easier.
Regardless, I will trudge and trundle ever forward and learn as I go.
A Little Guilt
Phyllis Schlafly, a pillar of the conservative movement and director of the (unfortunate) downfall of the ERA legislation (among many other campaigns), died two days ago.
I vaguely recall her and Anita Bryant during the late 80s, campaigning against any equality for the LGBTA community and making our lives miserable and uncertain. She was a vile woman who did everything she could to remove anti-discrimination laws and, if that wasn’t possible, stop any attempts to create equality for anyone who wasn’t a heterosexual, conservative white person (I’m sure religion figured in there somewhere as well; she was around during the formation of the Moral Majority, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she was involved in that as well…thanks a lot, Reagan).
She was a sadist who seemed to take joy in creating hostility towards minorities and feminists, and do so largely under the all-too-familiar mantra of “protecting the children”. She made it her mission to stop other women from having the ability to make their own choices regarding abortion (yet another tired plank of the conservative party), and to espouse the virtues of being an at-home wife while the husband made all the money (which was a very strange position to take considering she was far more famous than her husband). The only word I can use to truly express my disgust and anger towards her would be “repellent”. She was a repellent, hurtful, evil woman who was committed to pushing the conservative viewpoint to a prominent place in society, and damn anyone who wasn’t on board.
When she died, I felt elation…and then a little guilt.
I am a staunch pacifist who would never hurt another living creature (with the exception of mosquitoes and cockroaches…but I do try to kill them as quickly as possible so as to prevent suffering). I do not rejoice in other people’s misery or death. To show happiness in regards to someone’s death is a very abhorrent and socially scandalous thing, regardless of any offensive behaviour exhibited by the deceased while alive.
This news lit up the LGBTA message boards I visit. There were a lot of people who voiced their happiness that this woman died, and not a few chastising us for rejoicing as we were. One person said we should be ashamed of ourselves because we were “disgusting human beings”, no better than her. I replied, saying they wouldn’t feel the same way if he were a minority, feminist, or non-conservative. I said she was cruelty incarnate who made other people’s lives hell. She had absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever (unless you were a white conservative) and she humiliated people she didn’t like. She knew her words and actions would cause suffering and did not care one whit because she considered us “sub-human”…so our feelings were a little understandable.
Still, I feel a little guilty for thinking this way. She was a horrible person who did and said horrible things. She would inculcate xenophobia and hatred in her followers, and actively fanned those flames knowing what they would do. While a tiny, selfish part of me wishes she suffered as much as we did, someone mentioned that she probably did before she actually died. Great strides have been made in the realm of equality (and continue to be made) in spite of her work, and that is satisfying to know.
We rejoiced the downfall and eventual deaths of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and other tyrants. Nations celebrated the fact that their reign of terror had finally come to an end, or at least halted for the time being. Phillis Schlafly was a tyrant who led an army of hateful people, and I am similarly glad her reign of terror has finally ended.
I still feel a little guilty nonetheless.
The Novelty of Happiness 