Posts Tagged ‘Asshole idiots’

Thanks for the Heads Up

January 8th, 2010 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, What is wrong with people?

>A minute ago, an email popped up on my BlackBerry. It was from an organization that I interviewed with in early November. The email thanked me for recently interviewing with them.

Since they had told me at the time of my interview that second round interviews would take place in mid-November and then no one called me, I used my finely honed logic to deduce that I was not a finalist for the job. It wouldn’t bother me if they had just sent an email two months later thanking me for coming in and informing me that I didn’t get the job but for the fact that it said “recently.” Two months ago – not recent. Either send a timely rejection, or don’t bother. Yeesh.

Incidentally, I accepted my current job once I left that interview. All’s well that ends well.

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There’s Goes That

December 24th, 2009 by Suzanne | 3 Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, random

>I decided in October to grow my hair a little longer. The guy who cuts my hair said that he’d cut it so it would grow back in stages. I loved it. I actually decided to keep it medium short, and went in for a trim this morning.

“Hey, I just want a little trim,” I told my stylist.

“Sure,” he said. Then he went outside to check out the traffic situation because there was a lot of honking. A few minutes later, he ran out to move his car before it got a ticket.

With all that disruption, he seemed to forget what I wanted because I am sitting here at my keyboard 90 minutes later with really short hair, depressed and wanting a paper bag to put over my head because not only is it shorter than I wanted, but it also is not that great. There are worse things in the world, but it’s really frustrating to think that I’m right back to where I was two months ago, except worse because he didn’t even cut it in a way that will grow back nicely.

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Copping an Attitude

December 18th, 2009 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, I love New York, random, What is wrong with people?

>When I walked into the subway at midnight, I discovered that all the turnstiles read “no entry.” My writing workshop professor asked a man in the crowd assembled on the mezzanine what was going on. He shrugged. No one seemed to know how long both platforms would be closed.

A large white cop hustled back and forth, walking up the stairs to the street, then back down again. “Can you tell us what’s happening?” Zia asked him. He stared at her. She asked again.

He made a face. “I can’t tell you.”

“Really? Not even a hint? Do you know when can we go back down?”

The cop stopped pacing. “Look lady, if you want to see two dead bodies, go right on down.” He practically spat at us.

Geez, sorry for wanting to know what goes on in our city…

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Bye Bayh Repro Rights

December 14th, 2009 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, random, What is wrong with people?

>Many of the bad things that are happening in the Senate today take me back to my earliest years in public policy. In the summer of 1995, the country was hotly debating welfare reform. I interned with the child care division of the Department of Public Aid in Illinois, and I followed the discussion closely.

By the time I returned the next summer, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) had passed Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton. States wrangled with how they could meet the welfare for work requirements and move people off of public assistance programs as soon as possible. Next door, the governor of Indiana, Evan Bayh, embraced welfare-to-work so wholeheartedly that I was certain that he was a Republican. I’m fairly certain that I even had an argument with Husband about it. I was wrong.

These days, over thirteen years after I first cut my teeth on public policy work, Bayh is still causing me to scratch my head. Evan Bayh is now a pro-choice Democrat in the Senate. Yet he voted for the Nelson/Hatch amendment that would have essentially forbid health insurance plans to cover abortion services. On the flip side, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is anti-choice, but voted against the amendment. What the fuck?

Sen. Reid showed great initiative in explaining his position, finding common ground and recognizing the need for health care reform to be passed. I commend him for taking the time to do the right thing for more people than himself. Sen. Bayh offered no explanation for voting against the women that he has courted for votes. It’s baffling. OK, it’s more than baffling; Sen. Bayh’s lack of courage on this issue is pathetic.

I learned in 1995-1996 that I really couldn’t count on Evan Bayh to make sound decisions when it comes to the health and welfare of women and children. A lot of time has passed since then. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Sigh.

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What We Saw at a Bus Stop in the West Village

November 21st, 2009 by Suzanne | 5 Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, fuck, hilarity, mortification, random, What is wrong with people?

>Warning: This is likely the most disgusting thing I’ve ever posted on CUSS…

As Steph and I strolled through the West Village this afternoon, she pointed out all the things that had changed since she moved. One of new arrivals is fancy bus shelters. We walked up to a glass and metal bus structure, and Steph gasped.

“Do you see what I see next to the bench?”

“Um, yes. Yes, I do.”

“That’s a dildo.”

“With shit caked on it, yes.”

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Naming Names: A Cautionary Tale

November 18th, 2009 by Suzanne | 1 Comment | Filed in Asshole idiots, mortification

>The number one rule of blogging is not to use people’s names unless they tell you it is OK. Generally, I follow this rule religiously. Some of my friends and family are identified by their real names; others get fake ones. If I link to a blog, I use the blogger’s blog name, which may be different from his or her non-blogging name.

So I have no idea what I was thinking back in February, when I wrote a post about why I hate Valentine’s Day. Not only did I use the real names of guys I knew in high school, but I lost my mind completely and also put in their last names. Perhaps this was due to a carb deficit, as I was in Phase I of the South Beach Diet, and Maurice (the hamster who runs on the wheel that powers my brain) was unable to perform at the minimal level he usually offers. Whatever the reason, not cool.

Even less cool is how this came to my attention. The gentleman now referred to as Mr. X was displeased that I shared this story. It seems his in-laws and maybe also fantasy football league googled his name and then mocked him, although I don’t see why he was mockable – I’m the total fucking shit in the story. Whatever, he was not amused. I felt awful and took his name out, but we all know the problem with the internet – once it is out there, it’s not entirely erasable.

I sincerely hope that this will not cause Mr. X any more grief. It was incredibly bad judgment on my part.

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Best Cartoon Ever Revisited

November 14th, 2009 by Suzanne | 4 Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, hilarity, mortification, random

>Years ago, I wrote a post about a “game” called “ookie cookie” or “cum on a cookie.” Basically, guys stand around in a circle and jerk off onto a cookie and whoever finishes last has to eat it. I profess to not understand males in any way, shape, or form. There are so many things that are wrong about people who would engage in such an activity.

Anyway, in response, my friend Mar sent me the greatest cartoon ever:

I am committed to republishing this cartoon every once in a while because I find it so fucking hilarious. Enjoy!

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>Publishers Weekly Best Ten Books of 2009 – 100% Male

November 11th, 2009 by Suzanne | 2 Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, mortification, random, What is wrong with people?, writing

>The problem with feminism is that it makes women crazy. We seem to believe that our words and our stories matter, and that we are not only capable of telling stories, but that we can excel at it. Our voices and our story telling techniques may differ from what has traditionally been viewed as great literature, but we think that doesn’t mean that they are not equally good.

Of course, these beliefs are silly, and Publishers Weekly took great pains to remind people that women’s work is just not up to par with that of (white) men. Their list of the ten best books of 2009 includes ten dudes, nine of whom are white. Some people bristled at this. Kamy Wicoff at She Write – an online community of women writers that is free and you should join – wrote:

Try to imagine if they had come out with a list of the Best Books of 2009 and it had included ZERO MEN. Try to imagine if Amazon had released its Best Books of 2009 and it had included only TWO men. I know it’s hard. But just try.

Wicoff asked the She Writes community to take action. To protest this ridiculous list, we should all buy a book published by a woman in 2009, take a photo of ourselves with it, and explain why we bought it.

Here I am with the 2009 paperback edition of American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. When the hardcover came out in 2008, it received glowing reviews. My friend Alex Elliot read it for her bookclub, and said that I would really like it. Sittenfeld and I are the same age, and I wish that I had an ounce of her talent.

I don’t have pictures of myself with another two books that came out in 2009, but last night I attended a reading of A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein. I thought it was great. Deborah Copaken Cogan also read From Here to April, which came out in hardcover in 2008 and paperback this month. It was also excellent. Both works were funny and thought-provoking, as were their creators.

If you are also pissed about the Publishers Weekly list, join the She Writes community’s protest. Once you post a picture of yourself on your blog holding a book you bought by a female writer that came out in 2009 (the deadline is Friday), send Kamy the link at kamy@shewrites.com. She Writes will send these links to the entire community (5000+) on Saturday. While the emphasis is on women writers protesting, I think anyone who cares about sexism should feel free to participate.

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>Move On

November 9th, 2009 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, What is wrong with people?

>When the liberal advocacy organization MoveOn.org was founded a few years ago, I was psyched. Approximately 900,000 emails from them later, not so much. Every day in the last few weeks, I received three emails from them. I blew my gasket today.

My motivating MoveOn email today noted that the Senate could really screw up the health care bill. My presence was requested at a rally to support the legislation that was out there. There was a little line thrown in about how anti-choice advocates muscled their religious beliefs into health care, denying women access to abortions, but whatever.

No, not whatever. I am sick of sacrificing my rights for the “greater good” when no one else seems to think they should ever do so. In yet another mass email I received (this time from Media Matters for America; I swear every progressive organization on the planet emails me daily), I learned that media coverage of the legislation is – surprise, surprise – completely misleading:

Media figures continue to falsely claim that a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the House health care reform bill would only have the effect of prohibiting government money from being used to pay for abortions, echoing a myth previously advanced about a proposed amendment to a prior version of that legislation. In fact, language in the current House bill already segregates federal money so it cannot be used directly to fund abortions, and the proposed amendment would effectively ban abortion coverage for some who have it now.

(Emphasis mine.)

Ellen Malcolm explains at The Huffington Post:

The Amendment effectively bans private insurance companies that participate in insurance exchanges from providing coverage of abortion. It tries to camouflage the impact by providing an “abortion rider” that women could choose to pay extra for to cover costs if they have an abortion.

I’m tired of being thrown under the bus so that others can roll forward over me. When the Catholic bishops (who launched “a forceful lobbying effort” that is credited “with the success of the provision”) and other religious fundamentalists next want to forbid insurance plans from covering contraceptives or protect “pharmacists” who decline to fill prescriptions that they find morally objectionable, am I again supposed to step aside for the greater good? No. Instead, I shall Move On.

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>No Justice. Again.

November 8th, 2009 by Suzanne | 2 Comments | Filed in Asshole idiots, evil, fuck, What is wrong with people?

>The House of Representatives passed a shitty excuse for a health care plan. It includes no public option. (Sorry, I misunderstood the newspaper this morning.) It also gave in to fundamentalist religious groups and barred abortion coverage for anyone obtaining health insurance with government subsidies.

Some might argue that it is wrong to use taxpayers’ money for things that certain taxpayers might object to. But we do that every day, anyway. I object to the death penalty, but every execution that happens in my state (which fortunately has been none) would be partly subsidized with my tax money. I object to Halliburton receiving no bid contracts to do nothing in Iraq. I object to hiring private “security” (paramilitary) firms being paid to “guard” stuff in Iraq. I object to the ludicrous idea that companies that are contracted by the US to work in Iraq are not subject to following US laws, so that women are raped by their co-workers and fired, the company has no responsibility. I object to using taxpayer money to build sports stadiums. The list goes on and on.

The problem with democracy is that sometimes you are stuck monetarily supporting things that you find morally reprehensible. If a person doesn’t like it, too fucking bad. He doesn’t have the right to impose his religious beliefs on me or other people.

Of course, not all religious groups are obnoxious fucking hypocritical assholes who insist on religious freedom for themselves but them force their beliefs down the throats of others. I know this. That’s why, even though I don’t believe in a Judeo-Christian God, I support the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. I think they do important work reminding people that religion does not have to oppress other people. I suppose it will be hard to continue supporting them when I live in my cave, hanging out with bats and shunning humanity, but as I said, there’s no justice. I don’t even know why I expect it every once in a while.

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