time to clear out muh backlog.

there’s all sorts of stuff i made comments about on various blogs and suchlike and then just never got around to making posts on. life gets so distractful, all interfering with my internets posting. anyway i’ll get round to clearing out the backlog the next few days, starting with whatever turns up in the next post.

should provide fun and amusement for all.

the problem with atheists.

Regardless of whether one is religious or secular in their belief systems, there are only two sources of moral and ethical authority one can claim.

Either human(s) are God or God(s) are God. Those are the only options. And atheists have to take the first option by definition. Which means that they are left holding the bag as to why *some* people’s opinions (the atheists’) about what’s ‘right’, ‘wrong’ and ‘moral’ are privileged over all other humans’ opinions of same.

I don’t wanna worship other humans, which is one of my secular reasons for not being an atheist. Also the racisms and classisms and sexisms of atheism don’t make the case for it as a belief system.

No atheist has yet come up with a reason why their opinion that child molestation is ‘wrong’ should be taken more seriously than the opinion of someone who thinks it is ‘right’ or ‘ok’ or ‘acceptable’. Unless, you know, one plans to worship the atheist as a god.

Arguments about why some humans are inherently better-equipped to decide what’s what than others tend to lead down unpleasant paths. Oh, eugenics, where art thou? and all that.

I’ll never understand God, by definition. But I always understand my fellow human beings, and I never get confused about power-seeking and egomania where they occur. Or self-loathing masquerading as nihilism. Funny how atheists don’t tend to be into having large familes, but snark at ‘religious’ people for thinking too hard about a Heavenly reward.

ALL other humans are just as pitiful and small and weak and fragile as I am. And that’s why I don’t buy the atheist argument that I should worship (usually upper middle class western white) other people instead.

[This was inspired by this angry diatribe against 'religious' people. Except the author of it meant Christians and maybe Muslims, but was too craven to come right out with it. I don't really tend to hear or see atheist rants against Wicca or Santeria, frex (although Santeria has quite a bit of Christian element in it). It's a minor thing, but it is irritating to hear atheists who really just hate Christians (and sometimes also Muslims) going on and on about how 'religion' makes them oh-so-angry. There's probably a word more specific for it (since it's not really atheism), but I've yet to see anyone bust out with it. The rant itself is amazing only for its templated quality, kinda like those scripts that generate romance novels or summat.]

Joel Osteen is a piece of work.

I read up on the man, and it was just depressing. I wanted to believe he’d just preached a false message once or twice unwittingly. But he carefully co-opts the sufferings of Christ to present people with a false feel-good ‘message’ about how you don’t have to ever suffer if you just believe in you (but not Jesus).

It’s really disgusting and horrifying. All that money people give him could go towards ministry and missional works, and that is not where it goes at all. Wealth drives one far away from heaven, and here Mr. Osteen is telling people wealth is the answer. He is a grinning, smiling, smirking wolf among sheep.

Prosperity theology raises the hairs on my neck. It’s Amway for Christians, and even more insidious and dangerous, since it leads to both earthly and eternal disaster.

what should be the dictionary definition of vegas

i only wish it were mine:

“Vegas is a diseased city. It began by feeding off people’s wallets and then moved on to their souls.”

come to think of it, one could use the same phrasing to describe the perils of sexwork, but i would never be the one to make that case…

an epiphany about stripping and race

stripping in clubs is unique among all forms of sexwork in that it’s the only kind of sexwork where black women can visibly be seen to equal or outearn white women. in porn, black women are shut out before the camera’s turned on; in prostitution and paid bdsm the negotiations are simply not public enough; and with phone sex ethnicity is a more nebulous issue period.

but at least in america, a lot of clubs count dances or ring up vip time, and of course, with stage performances, it is immediately obvious when a dancer is doing well.

granted, i am referring to mixed or majority-white stripclubs, but still, it’s a point that i’ve yet to see come up in all the sexwork sparring among feminists. if you can even get them to admit the virulent fetishising and racism in all forms of sexwork is more than just ‘personal preferences’ for twenty minutes.

another thing about stripping, the overarching issue maybe, is that the competition is immediate and obvious. even brothel lineups and street prostitution don’t have the same kind of direct competing going on. and i have noticed particular to stripping that a lot of (white) dancers have specific ideas about who deserves to make more or the same money, especially (though definitely not exclusively) if they are very conventionally attractive. and black dancers are never on the list of girls who deserve to make as much or more than they do without ‘extra’ being involved. sometimes there’s resentment of dancers who look/pass for ‘asian’ or ‘latina’ (in porn category terms), or dancers who are suicide-girl/alternative in looks, or slightly larger white dancers. but the majority of the ‘get her fired’ or ‘destroy her stuff’ bile is reserved for black dancers who are clearly not turning tricks in the club or after hours to make their money.

and in the discussions of agency and choice in sexwork, the struggles of black dancers and sexworkers more generally in navigating the the fetishising and racism are subsumed into generalising about how ‘WOC don’t make so much’ when it’s a more complex situation than that. and when in a large, public face of sexwork (stripping), it is clear that black dancers are singled out among dancers of color generally in uniquely difficult ways.

the root of all stripper-memoir myths

…is Ivy League Stripper.

She’s blonde!
She’s smart!
She makes tons of money!
She spends it all on school or saving up for the future!
She never uses drugs or even drinks champagne at the club!
She comes from an intact two parent family!
No abusive boyfriends!
She made money off publishing her story!
Her memoir is specifically and calculatedly written to present an image of a nice hardworking white girl who just had Too Many Bad Things Happen To Innocent Little Her!

In many ways, it is nothing like an actual stripper memoir. But it is almost shocking that most, maybe all of the myths about strippers who get published come from this one book.

marxism and sexwork do not compute.

i do not know why so many sexworkers think they are the new new marxists, owning their means of production and whatnot. they are the corn, not the farmer. although i suppose it is pretty impressive that the farmers have the corn so convinced otherwise, so consistently…

i hope to make a real post later tonight.  i get tired of the marx-invoking re: sexwork because it’s a larger symptom of lake wobegon syndrome among sexworkers who choose to write about the work.  i understand that it’s a reaction, probably not even entirely consciously, to the drug-addled ditz/single mom myth of sexworkers.  but still, it is irksome.

a month of beer– day eight, Arrogant Bastard Ale

“Hated by many, loved by few”

truth.

8/10 monks out of affectionate regard.

there is more to this review, but i am editing to reflect that later.

(edited the following day)

AB ale starts out a bit brash, but it is one of the few beers I’ve had whose head I like (I do not usually go for beer-head, which makes me a beer blashphemer, likely. o alas and woe). It is made by some guys out californi-way, who make other beers I have yet to sample. Those wacky californians. And of course I didn’t drink the small size, I went all 22 oz with AB’s rather highly tasty and alcoholic self. It was worth it. And I dranked it from a pint glass, at intervals.

Though I will like 80 percent or more of the time be picking new beers, periodically I will mention a beer I drank prior to starting this thing. And AB is the first. It is a warm, safe beer, so comforting to me to drink. It soothes my spirit, really.

It’s hoppy, but understated and relaxed about the hoppitude. That is of course what makes its name so charming. Overall, this is a beer that thinks it is a rocking hardbodied hottie, but I love it for its little tummy pooch it tries really hard to make sure you don’t notice.

But yeah, that was all the extra bit I wanted to say about that. Still not sure if I will do a beer for the toddy-night when I was sick yet. Maybe a dubbel (haha) entry.