in this country there is no 911

cbackson @ 2009-09-30T19:17:00

2009-10-01T02:23:32Z

I don't really have words to express how disgusted I am by the support shown for Roman Polanski by some of my favorite artists. So I'm going to let George Orwell speak for me:

If Shakespeare returned to the earth to-morrow,
and if it were found that his favourite recreation was raping little
girls in railway carriages, we should not tell him to go ahead with it on
the ground that he might write another KING LEAR.

Attention Washington Flisters!

2009-09-16T02:16:53Z

Please, please, please spread the word to your friends, family, and neighbors to APPROVE 71. Referendum 71 is almost certainly going to be on the November ballot. It's an effort to repeal the Washington Domestic Partnership Law, which gives same-sex domestic partners and opposite sex domestic partners over age 62 the same legal rights as opposite-sex married couples.

I've recently been canvassing in support of the Domestic Partnership Law, and it turns out that a ton of people are confused about whether or not they need to vote "Approve" or "Do Not Approve" if they support equal rights for same sex couples and want to keep the law. If you are in favor of the law, you must vote "Approve" on the ballot.

The lovely folks from Protect Marriage Washington are relying on confusion to help their effort to take away the rights of same-sex domestic partners, so please let people know!

cbackson @ 2009-06-25T20:08:00

2009-06-26T03:09:15Z

Internet, don't tell anyone: I'm watching The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.

ETA: Whatever, this movie is awesome. I forgot about the Julie Andrews factor.

cbackson @ 2009-04-02T20:22:00

2009-04-03T03:23:07Z

Y'all, I love Tavis Smiley. If you don't have the Tavis Smiley show on your public radio station, you are missing out in a big time serious way.

cbackson @ 2009-03-18T20:29:00

2009-03-19T03:48:09Z

So I've returned from what appears to have been over a month of silence, not to share further anecdotes about the adventures of My Client, His Babymama, and the Babymama's Boyfriend*: A Drama in 120 Billable Pro Bono Hours, but to rave a little bit more about Alastair Reynolds. In the past week, I've been on a Reynolds binge (I finally got a hold of Redemption Ark, and so finished the trilogy out of order, and in the past five days I've read two of his short-story collections, Galactic North and Zima Blue, and I have on my coffee table yet ANOTHER of his novels).

I'm bummed that no one I know has read these--Husband is "skeptical" of scifi, and it's pure SNOBBERY, LET ME TELL YOU--because they're thought-provoking in the best possible way. That is, they deal with Big Ideas without being about nothing but ideas--you will care very much about these characters. They also seem like very plausible versions of our future history. In that sense, they remind me of Ken MacLeod's fantastic political scifi serious of Fall Revolution novels.

ANYHOW. Someone should read them, so I'm not alone!

In other news, I'm thinking about trying to make cheese. I feel like I should add this to my repertoire, so that I'll fit in when the glorious nation of Cascadia finally forms or peak oil happens and we no longer have refrigeration or I get fired from my job and need to be useful around the house.

*Although I should share that Client decided to voluntarily return to his country of origin and Babymama's Boyfriend got shot while engaging in some unspecified "gang-related activity," but is not dead.

cbackson @ 2008-12-19T12:08:00

2008-12-19T20:09:19Z

Brace yourselves--THERE IS HEAT.

For now.

OH MAN, PLEASE LET IT STAY.

cbackson @ 2008-12-18T18:59:00

2008-12-19T02:59:56Z

SIGH.
All I do right now is try to keep my damn fire going. WHEN WILL MY FURNACE WORK AGAIN?

cbackson @ 2008-12-06T13:19:00

2008-12-06T21:51:07Z

So I was reading Jezebel the other day. YES, I KNOW. I stopped reading Jezebel for a long time after whole "Roman Polanski raping that 13-year-old was totally cool because when I was 13, I had an older boyfriend!" post. But recently, I succumbed again.

Recently, there was a post about how the chick from Washingtonienne recently got married. The writer claimed that people were just hoping for this woman's marriage to fail because they hated the idea that a woman who'd had many sexual partners (aka, was a "slut") could happily settle down with one person.

And then a bunch of folks in the comments pointed out that actually, a lot of people despised Washingtonienne because she used to go through her johns' wives private things and mock the wives on her blog, with plenty of identifying information.

This is pretty awful, right? I mean, although I'm very, very conflicted about sex work and legalization and all that, I don't hate or despise 1) women who engage in sex work or 2) women who don't engage in sex work, but have lots of partners. I have gotten into some pretty fierce fights with a friend who was carrying on an affair with a married man, but strangely, I don't feel the same animosity towards a sex worker who has married clients (although, generally, I think the clients are bastards). HOWEVER, either way, it's not cool to mock these women because their husbands are running around with your younger self. It's even more wrong to do so publicly, in a way that will tend to expose them to scorn.

Except the response on Jezebel, is that these commenters shouldn't be so JUDGEY. EVERYONE SHOULD JUST STOP JUDGING, GOD. It's nobody's business who anyone else has sex with! DON'T BE ALL JUDGEY MCJUDGERSON!*

It strikes me as kind of ridiculous that the greatest sin, in certain parts of our public commentary, seems to be "being judgmental." When I think of judgmental behavior, to me that usually carries a sort of whiff of hypocrisy--someone's casting aspersions on a person who can't meet a standard the speaker isn't meeting herself. But on Jezebel, on a lot of parts of lj, "judgmental" seems to have become a synonym for "taking a moral position of any type."

I'm a pretty live and let live person in a lot of regards. What you tend to do in your personal life, so long as it doesn't affect others, isn't my business. But what "not my business" means to me, most critically, is that it shouldn't be regulated or interfered with by the state, and that I'm unlikely to try to intercede to change it. What it DOESN'T mean is that I have no moral or ethical opinion about it.

It seems bizarre to me that we seem to have arrived at this point (and I see this a lot in lj coms) where it's not okay to have a public conversation or to hold an opinion about the morality of private behavior. I feel like it's actually very important to talk about issues of private morality as a way of helping each of us figure out where we do stand, and what we do feel is right or wrong. And yet this seems to be, just...totally off limits.

It's like this: I am totally FINE with a vegetarian thinking that I am doing moral wrong by eating meat. I really disagree with that moral judgment, but so long as no one's trying to legislatively coerce behavior, I'm happy to have a conversation about it. I don't think it's "judgmental" for that person to believe that my behavior is wrong. It's a moral judgment, yes, but it's not judgmental, as I've always thought of that term.

This is not some neocon, reactionary, WHAT'S WITH THE KIDS AND THEIR MORAL RELATIVISM rant, by the way, because despite my personal behavioral conservatism, I have pretty liberal politics.
UGH, I AM A GRUMPY OLD LADY.
*I should add that at least of the anti-Washingtonienne commenters was really not okay with the gendered insults, but the bulk of the comments were actually fairly soft-spoken.

cbackson @ 2008-11-23T15:22:00

2008-11-23T23:30:51Z

Today I baked a pumpkin pie for Husband's birthday. It's the first time I've made one from an actual pumpkin, and I wasn't sure how much pumpkin would result, so I baked two and of course now I'm drowning in pumpkin puree! I'm hoping it comes out well, because it's more watery than I'm used to. I also had to make oil pastry because for some dreadful reason, I HAVE NO SHORTENING. I know that shortening is declasse, but biscuits and piecrusts are just SO MUCH BETTER with shortening.

I got Husband a french-press travel mug and an awesome used book called UNUSUAL VEGETABLES. It's from the late 70s, and it has that awesome line-drawing art that I identify with the copy of Our Bodies, Our Selves that my mom used as a high school sex ed teacher in 1975 in Florida. The same book that suddenly, OF ITS OWN ACCORD, migrated from the attic to the bookshelf nearest my room when I reached about age 11 or 12, presumably so that I could, at my own pace and in privacy, be horrified by graphic illustrations of dudes with Tom Selleck moustaches performing oral sex on their ladies.

In other news, I finally got admitted and am up on my firm's website, and suddenly I have also appeared in all of these online lawyer listings. It feels a bit strange to be ALL OVER THE INTERNET.

The cable-knit scarf looks a bit better than it did before. I am regaining hope.

cbackson @ 2008-11-14T19:43:00

2008-11-15T03:57:03Z

I'm melancholy tonight.

This doesn't happen very often anymore. I used to be a very sad person--I was clinically depressed, but I also just had sort of a melancholy temperment. That all came out in the wash. Pretty much no one would call me a melancholy person now; I think that I tend to be perceived more as sort of...deeply cheerful and kind of silly.

Now and again though, I have a night when I sort of get to thinking on old things. When it seems very much as if my dead are close. My uncle, Ted, A. A, of course, is not dead, but is just as gone. And before is hard not to think about--before the war, before A went crazy, before, before, before. The thing is, we all have our befores, even if the thing that divides present from past is something much more ordinary than a friend dead, a friend lost.

When I was younger, I imagined a sort of stranger, darker, edgier adulthood for myself. But now I'm a lawyer, and I bake and knit and can jelly with my husband, and I'm a Sunday-School teacher. And I'm almost never sad these days.

It's a good night for movies, and red wine, and the scarf I'm knitting for my husband. It's my first time with cables, and so far it looks good. We're having an all home-made Christmas, and this is what I'm making. I wonder what he is...

cbackson @ 2008-11-11T20:54:00

2008-11-12T05:12:43Z

Wow, what a busy week this is. I'm interviewing my client (MY client! Yay! And poor guy, being stuck with me) at the immigration detention center on Thursday, which will be kind of frightening. The rest of the week is just packed with stuff to do--meetings and appointments and calls.

There was a lot that I liked about it. I really enjoyed reading a theologically rigorous argument in favor of progressive Christianity--one that isn't just based on feeling that, say, homophobia is bad, but rather one that makes an argument in favor of LGBT inclusion that is grounded in the long history and tradition of Christian thought. Too often, I think that progressive Christianity just feels sort of...mushy and self-indulgent. But Borg paints a picture of an almost fierce progressivism, motivated by a desire for justice and a love of the least of these. That was very appealling to me.

I will say that I felt like his discussion of sin did veer a bit into the self-indulgent--I felt like he sort of acted as if sin-as-separation-from-God or sin-as-blindness-to-human-need are just things that sort of...happen to humanity. He seemed to think that we have no role in it--that we're never responsible. The idea of repenting--Go, and sin no more--kind of got left along the wayside.

But I'm pretty into examination of conscience and all that, so it makes since that I'd have trouble with that aspect of it. In general, I thought it was great, though.

cbackson @ 2008-10-22T20:18:00

2008-10-23T03:18:51Z

Oh man, y'all.

Usually academics_anon has a high asshole factor, but some of the response to this ridiculous question about Beowulf are priceless.

cbackson @ 2008-10-20T20:35:00

2008-10-21T03:36:26Z

God, I love Chuck.

If only as an excuse for Adam Baldwin to make fun of himself every week.

cbackson @ 2008-10-12T11:01:00

2008-10-12T18:01:58Z

I PASSED THE BAR!

ETA: Thanks so much to the anonymous Someone or Someones who sent me V-Gifts!

cbackson @ 2008-10-10T20:59:00

2008-10-11T04:07:23Z

Tomorrow is the wedding day of two of my lj nearest and dearest, koritsimou and detlef . I don't really know what to say--you both mean so much to me.

So I'll just say this, as they do in Panama: may you live a hundred happy years. I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.

cbackson @ 2008-10-04T13:00:00

2008-10-04T20:01:15Z

I am in Cape Cod for a wedding! It is beautiful! Yay, weddings!

Today's outfit:
-Brown silk empire spaghetti-strap dress
-Gold and red paisley shawl
-Gold strappy sandals

cbackson @ 2008-10-02T19:20:00

2008-10-03T02:21:36Z

ARRRRRRRRRGH.

Reagan did not coin the phrase "city on a hill," mmkay, Sarah Palin?

It's actually from a book.

A book you might have heard of.

Called "The Bible."

cbackson @ 2008-10-02T19:02:00

2008-10-03T02:05:59Z

Today's outfit:
-Gray houndstooth sleeveless sheath dress
-Black cardigan
-Black tights
-Black pointy pumps
-Silver metal bracelet watch
-Malachite bead necklace

The necklace was a present M bought for me in Cameroon.

The first day (and the second!) were absolutely awesome. My co-workers seem great, the firm seems like a humane place to work, and I already have a work assignment in my preferred practice area! AND today the big fancy energy department partner, who I'd been told didn't work with associates pretty much ever, came into my office and we had a really long talk about projects I could help him with. He asked me to send him a paper I wrote on avoided deforestation and carbon credits!

cbackson @ 2008-10-02T18:48:00

2008-10-03T01:48:49Z

BEST WISHES THIS WEEKEND, doraphilia !

cbackson @ 2008-09-29T10:13:00

2008-09-29T17:17:11Z

OH MAN.
So I got up at 5:15 today to run, the idea being that I need to accustom myself to getting up at this time so that I can get on the 7:00 ferry for work.

Except, erm, it's full dark at 5:15 AM.

And there are no streetlights on my street.

Y'all, it was so dark that I actually couldn't stay on the paved road. I COULDN'T SEE MY FEET. So I drove to the gym, and tomorrow I'm going to ride my bike (I have an amazing headlight set) a half-mile to the grocery store parking lot and try running in the parts of town that do have streetlights.

IN OTHER NEWS, I bought the omnibus of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels to read on my flight back to Seattle (and my long redeye to Cape Cod for a wedding this weekend), and I have to admit that I'm bored as heck and I'm not even all the way through Titus Groan. I just...don't care what happens to these characters. At all. SIGH. If anyone has brilliant thoughts to convince me of the greatness of this, please whip 'em out.

cbackson @ 2008-09-25T08:09:00

2008-09-25T15:13:15Z

I am home! In WA! Hooray!

Also, when I got home, the AMAZINGLY HUGE STAINLESS STEEL stockpot we ordered from All-Clad with the last of our wedding Macy's credit arrived while I was gone. It is BEAUTIFUL. It has an extra-thick bottom with an aluminum core for even heat distribution! All I can think about is how much jelly I can make with it...

And my beloved husband found the glass snap-top storage jars with the rubber gasket that I've been wanting for the kitchen. I couldn't find them anywhere, but he somehow uncovered them while I was gone.

DOUBLE AND: I am almost finished with the alpaca afghan I am knitting for Husband's best friend's wedding. I did it with Suri Dream from Knitpicks, in gray, and it is SO soft and delightful. I'm in love with it!

cbackson @ 2008-09-20T21:47:00

2008-09-21T02:04:31Z

I went to an antique store today and acquired the 1954 Amy Vanderbilt Etiquette. I don't remember if I posted about it here, but when I was in Portland, I also got the 1969 Emily Post Etiquette. I love, love, love old etiquette manuals, be marry even if he rcause they are full of fabulous things like this:

Everyone knows that a man can always marry even if he reaches 102, is penniless, and has all faculties gone. There is always some woman willing to take a chance on him.
(From a section entitled THE BACHELOR'S PROBLEMS)

The Victorian gentleman shook hands gravely with his wife and family if he met them in a public place. But now, if it is usual for us to kiss our relatives or close friends, we do so, in greeting and farewell, in public or not, so long as the gesture is sufficiently brief so as not to attract the attention of passers-by. Of course, if a man does greet a woman in public with a kiss, he must remove his hat entirely.
(From KISSING IN PUBLIC)

Of course, there's some stuff in these books that a modern woman would find pretty sexist. For example, apparently, it is offensive and insulting to address a married woman by ANYTHING other than "Mrs. John Smith," as "Mrs. Mary Smith" is ONLY used by DIVORCEES. In fact, it's used by divorcees of LOW CLASS, because a PROPER divorcee goes by "Mrs. MaidenName MarriedName". And the children of a first marriage should never attend the remarriage of a divorced parent.

However, what I'm struck by is that, contrary to popular assumptions about etiquette, most of the rules in these books are focused on putting others at ease. So there's a lot of stuff on how employers shouldn't socialize with their subordinates or household servants, but the rationale *isn't* that the servants are below them--it's that they probably don't want to spend their free time with their employers, but won't feel free to say no.

I think there's also a perception that etiquette was a straightjacket that enforced a particular set of cultural norms, but these manuals, at least, go out of their way to emphasize that if a cultural practice is proper within that community, then it should be viewed as polite by others. In that vein, this book (which assumes that its audience are WASPs) has lots of info about Jewish, Catholic, and Orthodox wedding customs, how they differ from a "typical" Protestant wedding, and how a guest who isn't a member of that religious community should behave. For example, there's a discussion of how gifts of money are inappropriate at weddings, but the book notes that they are common and are considered polite in Italian-American communities.

Of course, I expect that Amy Vanderbilt's idealized culturally sensitive (yet polite!) world rarely existed, but it's interesting to see what was held up as the standard, and how that differs from common perceptions of what formal etiquette is about.

cbackson @ 2008-09-19T10:52:00

2008-09-19T14:53:32Z

Is anyone else's lj loading really weirdly?

IN OTHER NEWS: I crocheted my husband a scarf with the camo yarn. I HAD TO.

cbackson @ 2008-09-18T20:30:00

2008-09-19T00:40:00Z

I'm in Atlanta! It's very warm here. Today I took Dog-Niece to the park, and she chased tennis balls FOR HOURS. I love watching dogs run; it's so awesome when their ears flap in the wind.

I walked around the university campus--given that I grew up there and then went to college there, almost every square foot is rich with memories. Even the new buildings make me think of things I did in the space that used to be there.

This is my last of...gosh, FIVE* vacation trips before starting work. I'm really ready to start working--too much free time always makes me feel aimless.

*the San Juans, Peru, eastern Washington, Portland, and Atlanta.

cbackson @ 2008-09-11T16:58:00

2008-09-12T00:02:15Z

While Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, the city charged women for their own rape kits.

There are a lot of things wrong with this. I'll just say one: rape is a crime against the individual who is assaulted, but like all crimes, it is an offense against society as well. Charging the survivor for the rape kit implies that the assault is just a private concern. But it isn't. Rape is a much more common crime than murder, if even the least frightening statistics are correct. Can you imagine a murder victim's family being charged for the crime scene investigator's time?