Got a few things hanging around the browser to share, and seeing as I have very little to report from my own life (sleep continues to be complex and evasive, bleh) I figured now was as good a time as any to share them with you nice people.

For starters, there is this bit of news about the fate of Representative Jesse Jackson Junior.

Yup, the son of the famous Jesse Jackson. He’s a Democratic Member of Congress who has made the news for basically just plain disappearing for months without an explanation.

That was intriguing, but what caught my interest was that when he finally broke his silence and told everyone what was up, it turned out he had been suffering from major depression.

And I know a thing or two about depression myself. And I have met enough people who were successful people with high social status who just plain wore out one day and collapsed inside, and suddenly became emotional cripples, that I can imagine what JJJ is going through right now.

He probably feels horrible for failing everyone who trusted in him and who admires him and looks up to him, and that, of course, only makes the depression worse. I am glad he is getting medical help… he needs all the messaging that this is a disease, not a failure or weakness, that he possibly can get, and a medical setting with doctors and other professionals can only help.

The latest news from the article is that he sent out a robocall to his constituents to tell them how things are going with him. Here’s the nutmeat :

For nearly 18 years I have served the people of the second district, I am anxious to return to work on your behalf, but at this time it is against medical advice, and while I will always give my all to my constituents, I ask for your continued patience as I work to get my health back.

Well put and well done, sir. Despite what the disease itself tries to tell you, you have done nothing wrong. You are just someone who has become ill. And nobody would fault a person for being realistic about how long it will take to recover.

Then there is this incredible video. You have to see this, but before you do, I need you to promise me that you will watch it all the way to the end without skipping anything, OK?

Trust me, it is absolutely worth it.

That covered, here it is :

Now that, my friends, is how you make a point. I bet a lot of people in the audience, no doubt some of them black, were agreeing with everything that guy was saying before he dropped the bomb.

That is how you get behind enemy lines to do some damage in the battle for the hearts and minds of the people. You have to start out with things they will agree with, and then take them to a conclusion they absolutely cannot accept via logically plausible steps.

This forces people to wake up from their herd stupor and actually think about what they are hearing in order to avoid the terrible conclusion. There is no other way to defend yourself mentally. Sure, it will make people angry and there is no guarantee that it will change anybody’s mind. People are quite ingenious at coming up with ways to keep believing whatever they are used to believing and avoiding having to actually reflect and examine anything.

But you have forced them to think about what they believe, and that is not easily done.

And while we are talking about changing minds on controversial subjects, how about this little bombshell from the University of Toronto : PMS does not exist.

Now let me make this crystal clear : nobody is saying menstruation does not exist. It exists, cramping exists, bloating exists, and all that.

But a group of researches at U of T set out to study PMS, only to find they could not even prove it existed. This opens up a lot of intriguing possibilities that all center around the notion that PMS might be an entirely socially constructed phenomenon.

This immediately makes me wonder what the historical evidence for PMS might be. And specifically PMS… any woman might be in a bad mood when her body is doing horrifying things that cause her a lot of pain. Men get testy when they are sick too.

Another interesting angle : feminists seem, so far, to be embracing this idea and saying “See, women are not irrational creatures because of our hormones, so knock off all that ‘must be her time of the month’ bullshit, you sexist pigs!”.

And bravo for that! But I wonder if the ladies have thought this true, because if we all stop believing in PMS, that means that you ladies no longer have an excuse for being moody and bitchy and crazy for four or five days of the month.

You will actually be fully accountable for your actions 24/7/365.

You know, just like a man.

You sure you want to go there, ladies?

Finally, we have this funny story out of Austria : A museum in Vienna has caused quite a stir by putting giant posters of naked men all over the place.

And predictably, people are flipping out over this harmless display of the human body, and saying “oh, but what about the CHILDREN?”.

As though pictures of naked people magically emit child brain warping radiations.

But to me, the real nugget of irony is that the museum is acting like they are shocked, shocked that people are upset about how they chose to advertise their latest exhibit.

How disingenuous can you get? Like you had no idea plastering giant schlongs all over the place would cause a stir. You are so full of shit your eyes are turning brown from the outside in. You knew damned well people would flip and you would get tons of free publicity.

In fact, that probably made it all the sexier for you Viennese art fags. (There is literally zero possibility that an exhibit of male nudes was put together by any heterosexuals. )

And I am all for destruction of pointless and harmful taboos via desensitization. We would all be better off without body shame and the more ridiculous and poisonous extremes of the child\sex barrier.

But don’t piss on my shoe and tell me it’s White Zinfindel. Own your provocation. Stand up for your radical action. And if you can’t own it, don’t do it.

And for what it is worth, fag though I am, I would personally enjoy giant pictures of naked men unexpectedly appearing in public.

Though sitting around observing people’s reactions might be pretty funny.