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Baby, the Stars Shine Brite

The secret life of a girl.the strange confessions and dirty little secrets of a girl.

We'll always be together
23.7.06

Power Outages due to Storm 
As it appears, even if I had come up with the cash to make it to HOPE - my plans would be destroyed by the massive storm front that followed the 110 degree heat Wednesday. Power has been out in most of St. Louis since Wednesday night and is largely restored now. The National Gaurd was called in on Thursday evening/Friday due to looting that was taking place up and down Grand (J, my partner, living on the south end of the road stretching from end to end of the city). A tornado touched down within city limits for the first time (ever allegedly, but definately within the last 50 years). While I was safely deep in subrubia dying of boredom, where not a lot out of the ordinary major thunderstorm happened.
My family for the most part was missed - except for my grandparents who live closer to the city and were left without power and water for the last four days.
Local Damage Video

And as the roof has been torn off the roof of the airport, I suppose that getting to HOPE would have been difficult.

However, due to J being without power until yesterday, we ended up spending lots of quality time... sleeping, on my parents sofa. I had been deathly ill and he had not slept well without power when he still thought it would be turned on soon. With 294182 people out of power, he was wrong. Of course, we ended up seeing Clerks II (highly recommended) and Lady in the Water. (Actually, very very good. Possibly one of the best movies of the year I think.)

posted by Tragic the Pixie @ 7/23/2006 05:27:00 PM

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18.7.06

Abortion Fund 
NNAF (National Network of Abortion Funds) finally got back to us - and will be sending a start up kit in the mail. Who knows how long that will take ...

In the meantime, we're making a lot of headway in gathering materials, I only wish the gathering money were going as well. The first pamphlet to be done and set of press releases I think will be on abortion law and the recent changes in Missouri. Plug the organization at the end - and say something like "call for services."

Hopefully the NNAF can help in the gathering funds.

posted by Tragic the Pixie @ 7/18/2006 02:06:00 PM

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17.7.06

News Dump 
Federally Funded Pregnancy Centers Mislead Teens about Abortion Risks Rep. Henry A. Waxman reports that federally funded pregnancy resource centers mislead teens about medical risks of abortion ... Something many feminists (like myself) have been saying for years.

Love Parade Returns to Berlin!!! And I wish I could have been there...

Protestors rally outside Mississippi's last abortion clinic

A Bridge in Paris is named after Simone de Beauvoir ... Who is one of my absolute favourite feminists. Not only did she start the second wave of feminist movement largely with her book The Second Sex, she also wrote some great novels like She Came to Stay and was an activist for the elderly in France.

The Guerrilla Girls pop up after being on display in London for the Tate Modern's rehang.

Stem Cell Reseach has half a chance. I find it *very* telling that the White House still plans on vetoing despite the large amount of votes in favor. It shows the lack of actual representation going on in favor of the majority - or as I usually put it, pig-headedness of the Bush admin.

Tsunami in Indonesia

Indian Rape Victim is Shunned By Village

African Priest urges married and punished priests to return to their duties - as married men.

Village Women Leaders Fight Back Female elected officals face physical violence, abuse, and humiliation from their male peers - because of female-led crack down and council corruption.

posted by Tragic the Pixie @ 7/17/2006 11:03:00 PM

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15.7.06

The War on Drugs Enters Johnny's Bedroom 
Howell Oks mandatory drug testing

Francis Howell High School students who play sports, participate in after-school clubs or park on campus will be required to submit to random drug tests this fall.

The Board of Education voted 5-1 to approve the program Thursday night, making Francis Howell the first school district in the St. Louis area to establish mandatory drug testing. Fort Zumwalt has a voluntary drug-testing program.

The Francis Howell program will annually test approximately 800 high school students, 20 percent of the total students participating in extracurricular activities or holding campus-parking permits.

Parents of middle school students will have the option of enrolling their children in a voluntary drug-testing program that is expected to test about 700 students per year.

Each week, randomly selected students would be asked to produce a urine specimen. A third-party laboratory will test the urine for the presence of marijuana, opiates, cocaine, methamphetamines, anabolic steroids, benzodiazepine and Ecstasy.

With member Bill Spencer absent, the school board voted 6-0 to contract Clinical Collection Management to administer the drug-testing program. The Webster Groves-based company, selected from five applicants, also administers Fort Zumwalt's voluntary program.

Bridgeway Counseling Services will provide free drug counseling for students who test positive. The St. Charles-based organization is funded through the sales tax-supported Children and Family Services Authority of St. Charles County.

Jim Joyce, district communications director, said the program will give students a reason to say no when peers offer them drugs. By detecting drug use early, the program should prevent students from facing harsher consequences later on, Joyce said.

"This is not a punitive program," he said. "No student will miss a day in class because of this program. There are no academic consequences. It does not involve the police." ...

The article goes on, I just had to interject here the first of the BIG lies I saw.
What could they possibly mean "no academic consequences" when in fact, there ARE academic consequences. If a student does now at this time or any time in the past fail a drug test they are likely to have all federal student financial aid withdrawn. Not to mention many universities have followed the government's lead and adopted similar policies. So maybe a Francis Howell highschool or junior high school isn't going to do anything but drug test them again and again ... There are academic consequences. Frankly, I think this is much more of a sever one than my highschool won't let me be on the football team - which parents protest because that's how little Johnny is getting into college.

However - small things aside is it only my opinion that drug testing randomly nearly every highschool student is a HUGE invasion of privacy? When I was in highschool I remember there was a big debate on if a highschool could indeed look in a student's locker without them present and consenting. Later, it was decided that no they indeed could not - but at the same time, students would face punishment for whatever as if they were guilty of what they were charged with if they refused to have their locker or bag searched. What happened to that? Granted, I went to school in a different district...

The biggest problem with this practice lies in the damage this kind of invasion does to thoughts. Now we will have a generation of Americans that think that their EVERY MOVE can and will be used against them and monitored. I shouldn't need to remind anyone that this is something many people protest - afterall, when the government taps innocent citizen's phones people are upset but drug testing is doing the *exact* same kind of thing. Only monitoring not what you are saying but what you are putting into your body: which I'm sorry, but is your business and yours alone. Actually - it's your business and your business alone pregnant or not. Sorry Arkansas! These practices are, I think, exactly the same as the bills that want to make it a crime for a woman to smoke while pregnant. If in this case, when it is so obviously affecting another life (and I am NOT supporting this bill, I wholly support that it is indeed each woman's business) an invasion of privacy when what is put into a human body is monitored how is this any different for our teenagers? Secondly, I would like to remind every parent of a teenager I am not too far off from being a teenager: and I will admit I have and occasionally do use drugs.
I am on the dean's list at my university.
I am articulate and respectful - as well as witty and sarcastic and motivated.
I have hobbies and a life and real relationships.
I graduated in highschool at the top 5% of my class.
I've had my writing published, sold art in galleries as well as help run an art gallery, participated in various art festivals, and even given some talks on various subjects the peak my interest enough to put in the necessary hours of research and devotion to be considered an expert.
Drugs did not, and I shall refuse to let them because of various invasive laws, ruin my life.

I cannot express in words how disappointed in the school system and this community I am for allowing this to happen to their children.

posted by Tragic the Pixie @ 7/15/2006 01:28:00 AM

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8.7.06

Building Castles in the Sky 
There's this interesting thing: although I am getting married for various political (legal) and social reasons ... I must admit, I do not believe in this institution we call marriage.
Let us not forget, when marriage is presented in a religious concept in the most of the world we are talking about something springing from a Judeo-Christian foundation: which was based on the ownership of women by a certain man.
I do not believe I should be owned. I believe I should stand on my own two feet before any god or social entity. - At the same time I realize for many reasons not have designated someone who shares my values and respects me as a person able to stand in for me and make desions when I am not capable, will hurt me.

Civil marriage evolved, like so many things, in Greece where it was necessary since women were considered so far below men they needed incentive to keep the race going. Okay - so maybe in actuality things weren't THAT terrible, the but idea is nonetheless that and that violent. This is where the idea of civilly arranging those who are less than human (women or children) with men to make them count (almost as chattel) as a society originated.
I also do not see myself as a slave - and I do not want to be a "wife."

What I do seek - and what I think many seek who choose marriage is to be and to have a partner. (I afterall do not want a Husband.) That being said I do not think the institution of marriage can be completely divorced from its orgins. Afterall, a mere fifty years ago marriage was quite simply life - nearly necessary for economic survival, right along with domestic violence (afterall, husbands have a right to discipline their wives... What did you do to deserve it?) and compulsory motherhood.

individuals do of course divorce their marriage and their ideas from these concepts, claiming history is history, they exist completely outside of society, etc. This is, quite frankly, bullshit. We are ALL culturally influenced and constructed. Our institutions are as well. The only way for us to change the institution of marriage into a fully-human institution is to allow marriages between equals: rather than keep the basis on the inequality of male-female alliance. Therefore, until gay marriage is accept universally, one cannot separate marriage from what it always has been.

This does not mean however that individuals cannot do their part for whatever reason enter into a civil marriage and strive to create partners in lieu of Husband and wife.

posted by Tragic the Pixie @ 7/08/2006 12:53:00 AM

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6.7.06

The Secret Rules of Engagement 
So after many late night intense and restless conversations: J and I are officially engaged. As a bonus, I have a HUGE ring; but not a diamond, because I can't think of anything more typical and less representative of this relationship than a diamond.

For those of you who care to know: he did ask at Back 2 the Phreak (rave in a cave 2006) during DJ Spree's set. (Which was also suprisingly good.) Pictures are up over at Phocas.

posted by Tragic the Pixie @ 7/06/2006 11:22:00 PM

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"Father Forgive Me" (later renamed "Baby, the Stars Shine Brite") was started in the hope that a confessional blog would be entertaining reading as well as intellectual. After being neglected for some years is now, rather anonymously written in the hopes of hashing out thoughts in a somewhat intelligent manner. Aside from the writer of this blog, I am a university student majoring in Women's Studies and minoring in English at a prominent Catholic university in Middle America. A dedicated liberal - I also throw and participate fully in raves and rave culture from DJing, to lights and sound crew, to doing homework in legal libraries I'll be there - in true Riot Grrrl style: usually a miniskirt, combat boots, and wildly dyed hair. Aside from considering law school and entering politics I hope to start an organization wherever I end up providing a safe place for teenage girls (and boys) and helping their voices be heard as well as providing information on sex, condoms, and anything under the sun that kids may need. I am currently engaged to a wonderful man and hope to be married sometime around November of 2008.
Together in electric dreams
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Book: How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America Freedom Politics and the War on Sex (Christina Page)
Music: The Valley of the Shadow of Death: The Tossers
Film: Pan's Labyrinth
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