Monday Music

Because it's New Year's Eve I decided to play an old NYE standard, at least until we arrived at 1999 and it fell out of fashion because it was no longer in the future.

Unwanted Children

Back before there was any abortion controversy in America, people still had children out of wedlock and unplanned pregnancies. There was no birth control to speak of and no abortion. Did they always accept and care for the resulting children? Not so much, unfortunately. This is a long one because there's a lot of ground to cover.

Sin and the Single Mother - The Guardian

A History of American Divorce

In America you'll often hear it said that "in the old days people didn't get divorced, they worked things out." That's not exactly true, but it sounds good and it makes the old folks feel better to make an unfavorable comparison against the younger generation.

The truth is that 100 years ago divorce was just as popular as it is now, only people had to jump through hoops to obtain one. Before that people still split up, they just didn't bother with the formality of a divorce. They simply left and nobody ever heard from them again. Instead of divorce, which was messy and prohibitively expensive, they chose abandonment. Sometimes they pretended it had never happened if there were no kids, and married again without having divorced, or they'd fuck off somewhere far away and start their lives over again. A fair amount of migration had to do with leaving past mistakes behind, and immigrants to the US often had a wife or a husband back in the old country they were trying to put behind them. Marriage was not so uncomplicated back then. Now that we have DNA testing we're finding out that the old folks were keeping a lot of secrets.

Horse Breaking

Horse-breaking

Once upon a time not very long ago in the sweep of history, there was a method of horse-training called "breaking". The name lays out exactly what the purpose is if not the method. Horse breaking was intended to break the will of the horse to make it obediently do what we wanted it to do. It is only now that horses are no longer our main form of transportation and farm equipment and have become more like pets that this practice has faded almost into obscurity.

To Have And Have Not

I was thinking about life again and this morning I just kept thinking to myself, "Isn't life hard enough without us having to make it harder for each other?"

People of Walmart

There is nothing like Walmart in the Netherlands, for which I am thankful. If you want to know what poor people look like in America, you have to go to Walmart. 

People Of Walmart

School Sports

In my time away from America I've realized that school sports are a distinctly American thing. In other countries school is for learning. In America it's about succeeding at sports and it's a popularity contest. Kids participate in sports in the rest of the world, but it's not connected with school at all. There is no school team or cheerleaders or band or mascots.

Masturbation

Yesterday I was reading an article about an online trend for mutual masturbation among men. It turns out there's a website where they can go and do it on camera together.

Saturday Tunes

I felt like doing some uplifting songs today

I have a soft spot for Morcheeba and her sweet optimism.

American Healthcare

I keep finding myself trying to explain how American healthcare works to Dutch people and getting a complete lack of comprehension. They fail to grasp just how bad it is because they have no frame of reference to compare it to. It makes their brains switch off in self-defense because they're presented with a lot of information that makes no sense to them.

Inburgeringsexamen

I can't remember exactly how I imagined my future life when I was a child, but you can bet your ass this is not how I imagined things turning out. That having been said, I can't say it's been a disappointment so far. It hasn't always been a lot of fun, but sometimes it seems as if all of it was leading to something better. I don't know yet but I'm cautiously optimistic.

Crystal Frontier

I was in the mood for some music with a Mexican sound. If there's one thing I miss from America it was the Latin American musical influences.

Mother Africa

As I continue to read and learn about the history that brought us to here, I am learning about colonialism in Africa. When Europeans first got there they called it "The Dark Continent". The more I read, the more I begin to think that the Europeans were the ones who darkened Africa with their presence. It was a lot nicer before they got there.

European Colonial History - Africa

Dominance Displays

Carl Sagan once said that when people say "fuck you", there's an unspoken "I" at the beginning. As in "I fuck you". The reason for it is very much a feature in the animal kingdom. When animals want to show dominance over another of their species, often they will mount them. Not because they are overcome with lust, but to show dominance over them, as if to say "I can do what I want to you and there's nothing you can do about it." People do that too, both literally and symbolically. Sexual assault isn't about sex, it's about dominance. It's about power and control over another human being. It's also about insecurity, because dominance displays only happen when dominance feels threatened. It's something people do when they feel as if they don't have control over a situation or another person and they want to make themselves feel in control again. They have to make themselves feel bigger and stronger than they feel at that moment.

If This Is Civilization, I Want My Money Back

I've been thinking about the way we live and how we've come to believe that it's normal. Back when I was a kid the adults around me would often refer to Native Americans as living on "Indian time". Basically what was meant by this was that they didn't live their lives according to the clock or the calendar but just lived life at their own pace. This way of living pissed the white people off because people who lived on Indian Time were never on time for anything. Things happened when they happened. Things took as long as they took. As I get older, I start to think that Indian Time is a better way to do things.

Feminism and Philosophy

Margaret Cavendish - Project Vox

During the formative years of the discipline of philosophy there were many women who contributed to the body of philosophical works. In the 20th century and now in the 21st century, very few women have been recognized among the influential philosophers of their century. The reason for this is that women's philosophical contributions were first focused on women's issues specifically and then rebranded as its own "ism" in the form of feminism.

Classical Education

Grand Tour

In the late 17th and early 18th century the young men of the nobility were taught to read the works of ancient Greek and Roman authors as part of their education. A "classical education" often involved learning to read and write and speak both ancient languages. You weren't considered educated among the aristocracy if you couldn't do that.