Correction

Please don't take my last post to mean that I want you to vote for Hillary. Until the democratic supporter is decided, I'm behind Obama.

Obama will probably be on of my favorite people even if he's not the nominee. His speech was so important. Yes, it was during an election and a reaction to a somewhat negative situation. No, that's not ideal. But this is when the man has the stage, this is his opportunity to make his words heard, and I admire him for them just the same.

I think I should write more about his speech and what it meant to me. In order to do so, however, I'm going to have to get into a lot of things about my past, my experience as a Chapter 220 student in integrated schools, my struggle with race, and how his speech brought that all together. That's going to take a while. To be honest, I have to finish up a job application right now, so I shouldn't take the time.

But I did want to clarify my current support for Mr. Obama, my conviction that he is a fabulous orator, and that his speech should be heard by all, not just in snipits on Fox News.

And how sickening it was, after listening to his speech, to hear the news outlets wondering what "black people would think of his speech." I wonder if they listened at all.

~Kristen

Gender and Politics

This is a great article about "Post feminism" and gender issues in politics these days. This really captures how I feel, particularly about the gender issue in regards to Hillary Clinton. I didn't vote for her, but I deeply understand the huge support she has from older women, and why her candidacy is important. In some ways, I wish she weren't the wife of a former president, or didn't have some of the connections she does. It is important that this nation have a woman president just for the sake of having a woman president. That is not something that I say lightly, but it is true.

Until people stop laughing when a man shouts "iron my shirts" at a female candidate just as they would if a white man shouted that at a black candidate, the blinders to gender and sex inequities will still be firmly in place. I am not satisfied to live in a nation where the most powerful people are old men and the pretty young women who destroy their careers.

~Kristen

Yuck! Plastic Living In the Oceans!!

You have to take a look at this story. Why isn't it getting any press here in the states? Why don't we know that there is now so much plastic trash in our oceans that we cannot hope to clean it up?

I'm just flabbergasted. Here we talk about maybe cutting back on plastic bag uses, and no one even thinks to bring this up? This is one of the ways in which our over-use of petroleum and petroleum-based products has impacted the earth, and not a way that we normally would think of.

We should probably be discussing this.

Ben is Famous!

Well, more famous. An entry from his blog got picked up and published in The Capital Times this week here in Madison. It's not like he's never been published. I don't keep track of the number of times any more. What I was particularly impressed with was the honesty and frankness of his writing, as though he were writing only for himself, and that it was still picked up by a newspaper as something worth putting in print. *I* think it is worth putting in print, but I'm generally surprised when traditional sources print something worth reading. Overall, the Capital Times is a progressive paper, but hey, it's still print and therefore suspect.

So, go read the blog. It's about how the Capital Times is going to go "online only." Very hip, and probably because of corporate reasons. It's a cool article. Read and enjoy with your hip latte and beret, you progressive non-conformist you.

~Kristen

Pig Brain Allergies Anyone?

(for all of you like my husband, please not that the blog title is also a link to an article)

I went to get my allergies tested today. Oh boy. First, they had me not take any antihistamines for five days. They asked me to do that as though it was no big deal. It was kinda a big deal. Let me put it to you this way: I remember mom having to open up the capsules of my allergy medicine into applesauce so I could eat it, because I wasn't old enough to swallow pills yet, and I learned the difference between left and right by having to remember which arm I had to have my allergy shot in from week to week. No big deal.

I've not felt so great for five days, let me tell you.

I got lots of scratches. That was fun. It's really not a big deal. It's fun to watch the hives grow and meld together. The worse part was the 14 needles they had to shoot under my skin to do further testing when I didn't react enough to the scratches. Just great.

What was interesting was my *new* allergies. Yes! I have *brand* *new* *allergies*!! I've always been allergic to those old things like all trees, all grasses, most molds, animals with fur, and "remarkably" allergic to dust mites. Blah blah blah.

I am *now* the proud new owner of allergies to cherries, peanuts, almonds, walnuts and sesame seeds! Oh, and cows. I'm also allergic to cows. I didn't actually know that before.

But that brings up all sorts of questions. They didn't test me for many foods, and my doctor said he doesn't trust the reliability of the fruit and vegetable antigens that they did test me for. Even so, the only symptoms I had of the nut allergies were headaches. Could there be a connection between my headaches and allergies? That makes me want to do further testing to see if any other sensitivities come up that I can avoid to make these headaches less terrible.

Then again, perhaps I just think they're terrible because I have been miserable for the past 5 days without my antihistamines. Ugh.

Right, the article. All this talk of allergies made me wonder what allergies can really do to us. We don't have a cure for allergies or asthma or eczema. We don't really fully understand the human auto-immune system. This article is a very, very strange example of that. Involving pig brains. And Minnesota. What's not to love?

~Kristen

These are some wind chimes at a cool store in Door County. They were from all over the world, tuned very precisely, and hung outside in a gazebo. When the wind blew softly, it made them ring in a beautiful, brain-massaging way. I would make my very own wind chime gazebo some day if I could. I think some of the chimes were $1200, though. It would be a very expensive endeavor. I'd have to own a lot of land, too, so as not to annoy any neighbors.

I hope you can get a feel for the really cool experience of standing in this gazebo up in Door County. It is located at the Blue Dolphin in Fish Creek. (I think)