incurable hippie\\\'s musings and rants

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Which Way Would You Go?
2007-05-06 19:30:00
Yep, I'd be going for Segolene...
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Rapist For Sale.
2007-05-05 22:50:00
Oh - where is your sense of humour - it's only a toy!Amazon is selling a rapist.Rapist Number One is a character from Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse. The toy demonstrates the extent to which rape is taken seriously in our society. Sexual violence is a subject of play and entertainment. Amazon is obviously on the quest for rape-profits through this surrender to male porn culture. No doubt they will accrue much male approval, particularly from the little tikes who want to play at rape with their Barbies on the lounge carpet, giving them the enormous relief of being to act out in play, the vulgar and brutal little fantasies that roam around their peanut-sized brains.Of course the arguments will be that it is just a toy and that even graphical depictions of rape and violence do not lead to actual violence. We don't accept the premise of such 'WeirdWorld' justifications because EVEN if that were true, it still ignores the fact that rape and sexual violence are being used as someth...
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Pigeon Chicks Day 2.
2007-05-03 23:43:00
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } 100_3755, originally uploaded by incurable_hippie. People keep telling me they're cute...I still think they're really ugly. I do, however, wish them no harm and am quite interested to witness their growing-up progress.
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Pigeon Chicks.
2007-05-02 21:53:00
Baby pigeons are really, really ugly.And there are two on my balcony.The eggs were small and white and perfect, and I was kinda hoping for cute little things. But no. REALLY ugly.Ah well, you live and learn.
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Blog Against Disablism Day 2007.
2007-05-01 23:16:00
This post is mainly a republishing of an earlier post, to mark Blog ging Again st Disablism Day. Unfortunately, things haven't changed since February 2006 when I posted it originally, and some areas seem to be getting worse.I wish this post could be celebrating the reduction in disablism when it comes to mental health treatment, stigma and support, but with the Incapacity Benefit fiasco, and mental health care services being slashed (no pun intended, maybe) this government's so called 'priority' of mental health care is clearly either a huge lie, or they have really fuckin weird ways of prioritising things. Self-Harm and Medical TreatmentThe National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), in 2004 issued some guidelines on The short-term physical and psychological management and secondary prevention of self-harm in primary and secondary careThese include instructions such as, People who have self-harmed should be treated with the same care, respect and privacy as any pa...

Funerals and Words.
2007-04-24 22:37:00
Where's my banner gone?!Z and I went to Helen's funeral this morning. It was pretty harrowing, and the minister talking of new hope in God, and of Helen's demons was really not, NOT, appropriate for me. I actually wanted to shout at him several times, but of course didn't. It wasn't just him, of course, that made it awful. The fact that we were at the funeral of such a good friend was the worst thing. She was too young, too kind, too funny, too... And she's gone. There's nothing like a coffin to bring that home with a punch to the stomach.A few cans of Stella, too many cigarettes and a film have helped me through the evening. I just want the day to end now really.In other news, according to Gender Genie, my Le Pen blog entry is female, my entry about Helen is female, my entry about Charliegrrl and bullying is male, and my sexual violence is terrorism entry is male. My entry about the Park Hill murder is male, my letter to John O is male, Sheffield women, avoid this man! is fe...
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Dieu Merci!
2007-04-22 21:15:00
Le Pen came in fourth. There were worries he'd be in the top two, but Sarkozy got 30%, Segolene Royal 25%, and Le Pen dragging with 11.5%. While it is horrifying that 11% of French people voted for him (and on the news earlier this week, it was said that 8% of Muslims were going to vote for him! Argh!), it is very very good that he's nowhere near the top two who will be going to the next stage.Incredibly high turnout too, which I hope was because people realised Le Pen might have a chance if they didn't turn out.I do see that voting sometimes doesn't result in a hugely democratic process, but I do think that with evil bastards like him standing, sometimes it's vital to be tactical.
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You Know It's Not Good When...
2007-04-18 21:56:00
your GP gives you antibiotics for sinusitis, and the instructions say,Take two on the first day, then OD.
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One of my best friends has died. She was found o...
2007-04-13 18:52:00
One of my best friends has died. She was found on Monday and probably killed herself some time last week or at the weekend.I am devastated and stunned. Don't know what to do with myself.I found out on Wednesday, after much detective work by me and others, when we were really worried at not having been able to contact her for a while.Rest in peace, Helen. I hope where you are now is better than where you were then.
More About: Friends , Friend , Best , Died , Best friends

Bullies Defending the Patriarchy.
2007-04-07 23:30:00
Charliegrrl has been getting a lot of abuse online after voicing her opposition to a workshop at the upcoming Ladyfest Leeds, which is to be based around criticising the recent legislation to criminalise the possession of extreme violent porn, and considering if this contributes towards women’s liberation or women’s repression..?A thread at a pro-BDSM forum has been set up to 'encourage' people to respond to Charliegrrl's views and actions, and I read most of the posts on this thread. It's nothing new, it's nothing we haven't heard a million times before, and it made my eyes glaze over.I *know* the pro-BDSM arguments and they are very loaded, and are packaged in a way to make it look really bad to oppose them. If you oppose them you are censoring people, or oppressing valid alternative sexualities, or anti-sex (that good old!), or anti-free will! There is also lots of talk about allowing women to choose to work in the empowering sex industry.This informed consent message b...
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Sexual Violence is Terrorism.
2007-04-06 00:33:00
2 women a week are murdered in Britain by their male partner, or ex-partner. The most dangerous time for a woman who has experienced domestic violence is when she leaves, or tries to leave.The police in Britain receive 500,000 calls a year from women who suffer domestic violence.Domestic violence is the major cause of death for women under the age of 44 - more than cancer.Women are assaulted an average of 35 times by their partner before calling the police, according to the Home Office.On average, the police in Britain receive a call every minute of every day regarding domestic violence.And what are we doing with this information? This is a national crisis! An international crisis indeed, because it's not like this doesn't happen outside the UK.You want to talk about terrorism? THIS is terrorism. The terror that millions of women are facing in their homes, from men they live with who control and bully and batter and rape and kill them.Being raped in your home by the man who will d...
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Gabcast - Hairy Women
2007-03-30 17:27:00
Gabcast! incurable hippie's musings and rants #4 (previous post I refer to).
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Image Mosaic - Self Portrait Challenge
2007-03-24 20:14:00
made using image mosaic generator.Week 3, online tools or cool tools.More hippie photos.
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Justice, For Once.
2007-03-21 23:12:00
I used to live on Park Hill flats, a somewhat notorious council estate by Sheffield city centre.There is always a lot to say about Park Hill, but for now I won't be going into that. I just need to talk about one incident, and today's long-awaited update on it.In June 2002, I was woken by the smell of smoke. I leapt out of bed and went all the way round my flat, trying to find its source. When I couldn't find anything, I looked out of a window and saw the very clear cause. One of the flats opposite was very much on fire.There was a huge amount of smoke, and I watched as one of the windows shattered with the heat, letting yet more smoke out. I saw that there were people around the flat door, and for some reason I presumed that the flat belonged to one of the women standing there. I grabbed my phone to call 999, when I saw firefighters arrive.I was very frightened and disturbed by what I could see, and did not want to be part of that weird voyeuristic thing which happens to the best...
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Self-Portrait Challenge - Online Tools 2.
2007-03-14 23:35:00
Following my first of the online tools self-portrait challenges, here is my second.It was created using the warholizer from fd's flickr toys.My flickr page is here, and visit also the self-portrait challenge homepage.---Technorati tags: self-portrait challenge; andy warhol; incurable_hippie; self-portrait; digital imagery.
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The Difference between Self-Harm and Suicide.
2007-03-12 16:36:00
Dear John O,Thank you for your emails, which I always read with interest and concern, and usually respond as best I can to calls for action.I had to respond to this one, though, because of the way you are classing self-harm and attempted suicide as one and the same thing. This is just factually incorrect and very misleading.There are many reasons why people self-harm, but it is most frequently a coping mechanism, indeed something which people can use in an attempt to *prevent* themselves getting to the point where they may end up attempting or committing suicide.Some info:There are probably as many reasons for self-harming as there are self-harmers.Some people find that when they self-harm they experience a "release" which they cannot achieve in any other way. This can be a huge relief if feelings of depression, anger, self-hatred, fear or anxiety are becoming overwhelming.Others find that when emotional pain becomes unbearable, if they hurt themselves in some way it transfers the p...
More About: Self , Suicide , Between , Difference , Harm

Sheffield Women: Avoid This Man!
2007-03-10 19:13:00
Z and I were enjoying a pub lunch this afternoon when I began to be stared at and leered at by a random male stranger. He was mouthing words to me, and stared constantly at me. This made me feel upset and intimidated, but I tried to continue as if nothing was happening, and I avoided catching his gaze as far as I could.But no amount of ignoring seemed to discourage him and I began to get angry. Why should *I* feel upset and uncomfortable, when it's *him* being rude, arrogant, intimidating and a complete idiot. How dare he?!I started plotting and, inspired by sites like the fantastic Holla Back NYC - If you can't slap 'em, Snap 'em I got out my phone and took a photo of him with it. (The guy in question is the one sitting down, I've pixellated the entirely innocent guy walking behind him).He realised what I was doing and looked duly horrified, and from then until we left the pub, he didn't even glance at me. I hope I scared him, like he had scared me.And the photo is above. It...
More About: Women , Men , Field , Avoid

International Women's Day
2007-03-08 20:49:00
Happy day, grrls.And in the spirit of vengeing the copper in this news story in my good city, here's another great image.---Technorati tags: IWD; Inter national Women 's Day; incurable_hippie; feminism; police brutality; misogyny; violence against women; feminist art.
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Self-Portrait Challenge
2007-03-07 20:13:00
texturised mini me Originally uploaded by incurable_hippie. Using the very clever textorizer tool, I created this self-portrait of me long ago.Cool tools they suggest:Queeky - drawing tool.offtype - drawing toolartpad - painting toolscribblerflashface - make a face using many variablestypedrawing - draw an image with letterswebsketch Mr Picasso Head - fun make a face tooltextorizer - turn your photo into a text imageface transformerpolaroid-o-nizer - turn your photos into polaroidstyporganism - turn your photo into typepikipimp - change your photosmovie poster - flickr toolshockney-izer - flickr toolsmillion masterpiece - image community.---Technorati tags: self-portrait; self-portrait challenge; incurable_hippie; textorizer.
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Cars, Crap Arrests, Charges, Crossing Books and Cashback!
2007-03-03 22:27:01
People in the UK would have struggled to miss the news stories about the petition against increasing the costs of driving here. Even people who are supposed to know me quite well were forwarding me the link to sign. As if!So, I was joyous to receive a link to a road pricing counter-petition, from FoE via Yorkshire CND...*Subject:* Counter petition in favour of road pricing>>Dear All,>>Friends of the Earth have created a counter petition which says:>>We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Don't Scrap the>planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy. *More details*>http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/TRACK -CARS/?signed=a395b2a.ff1944#detail#detai l>>Submitted by Tim Lewis ? **Deadline to sign up by: **11 March 2007 ?>**Signatures:** 4,686>>Please sign up ? link below. Please forward to friends>>Denise, T2000>>---------------------------------- -------------------------------------->>D ear Friends of the Earth>>I'm emailing you about the road pricing controversy that's in the new...
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Visit from Auntie Flo.
2007-02-28 10:24:02
So, it's that time of the month.You may wonder why I'm posting about that, but it's because it's such a helluva thing to hit my body. It's so significant in my ability to move around, walk, go to places and do things, that it merits an entry, even if it does make someone squeamish.And if it does make someone squeamish, it'll probably be a bloke and he really should learn to deal with it.So, my period started this morning. Since then, I have taken plenty of kapake and anti-inflammatories, and been hooked up to a tens machine all day. I have lost my balance numerous times and properly fallen over three times.I have cried numerous times and writhed around in pain for longer than anyone should.I have been in significant pain all day, and felt exhausted, ill, sick, dizzy and drained.I get some joy from the prettiness and comfort of my washable san pro, which are infinitely preferable to even the most non-chlorine bleached and organic papery things.I have been unable to stand or wal...
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Academy Awards.
2007-02-27 10:24:01
I wish they'd shut up on the news about tonight's Oscars.I've heard so much about them I'm starting to actually care :-S---Technorati tags: oscars; incurable_hippie.
More About: Awards , Academy , Academy Awards , War , Academy Award

In Bits. That's the post (and me).
2007-02-24 10:22:02
So, it's been a while. It's been an awful time in my real life and struggle has been the defining word of the last few weeks. I've wanted to post here but have been in that particular state of mind where nothing I could ever say was worth the effort, and certainly I shouldn't imagine that others would want to read it. I'm here, mainly referencing others' stuff, of which there are some really amazing sights and sites.I'm trying to be well. I'm trying to feel ok. I'm trying to 'get it together'. I'm trying. And if you say 'yes, very trying' I will probably cry.Anyway, on to the more interesting bits of this post...Excitement of the week ---> hippie blog indirectly linked to from Time Magazine - you can read the article in question here: A Time Limit on Rape.Take action!Power to the Patients, see also Patient OpinionFreebies:Don't know how long it will be up there, but for now you can download 10 mp3s of mandarin lessons. Cool!Free Antique ClipartBig 'YOU TOTALLY MISSED...
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Guardian Toon...
2007-02-10 10:11:02
by Steve Bell at the Guard ian .---Technorati tags: guardian; cartoon; incurable_hippie; UK Politics.
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How to *really* prevent rape.
2007-02-05 10:07:02
A while ago, those of us sick of being sent emails about how to not be raped (no ponytails, girls!), posted and emailed a lot about those awful 'rape prevention advice' emails which go round. My response at the time is here.I was very glad to be sent a link to the following article today. We need more of this stuff.One violent crime and the female victim by Emily Maguire.If you're a woman, chances are you've received at least one version of the "how to not get raped" email. Even if you haven't, you will be familiar with the contents, because it's the same stuff you read in the newspaper whenever there's a known sex-attacker on the loose. It's the same stuff the women's magazines publish under headings like "How to stay safe".Again and again, women are told that we can avoid rape if we don't go out alone, don't get drunk, carry our car keys as a weapon, take self-defence classes, don't dress revealingly, don't talk to strangers, and on and on. We get it. We live it. And ...
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To Shave or Not To Shave.
2007-02-04 10:06:02
Shazia Mirza, a comedian who has long made me giggle, was on Woman's Hour yesterday, talking about her decision to stop removing her body hair. You can listen to the interview here for a few more days at least.She is not doing this for overtly feminist reasons, she is tired of all the time it takes to maintain unnaturally hair-free legs, underarms, and anywhere else. Not to mention the money - the amount she said she had previously spent on all this was quite obscene!One of the weirdest arguments against women having body hair is that it is 'not natural' and 'not feminine'. Well, it *is* natural - it's the shaving and waxing and bleaching and dissolving that adds the somewhat unnatural element to things. Similarly as to whether it's 'feminine' or not (whatever that means anyway), if feminine means how women are supposed to be, then, well, read the previous sentence again.I stopped shaving various bodily areas some years ago. Partly for 'raar' feminist reasons, partly beca...
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Things You Need to See.
2007-02-01 10:04:02
From my email:* Petition to allow people on psychiatric wards to smoke.* 17th May - International Day Against HomophobiaInternational Day Against HomophobiaMAKE MAY 17 2007 A DAY TO REMEMBER.UK campaigners are gearing up for the 3rd International Day AgainstHomophobia on May 17th. Last year there were over 40 events in the UKto mark the day in 1990 when the World Health Organisation removed?homosexuality? from its list of mental disorders. Internationally, 50countries are now involved in the campaign for LGBT rights to berecognised as human rights across the globe. IDAHO organisers areasking all those who support the campaign to organise events on andaround May 17th.One of the themes of this year?s campaign is ?No to homophobia-yes toeducation?. Students at the University of the Arts in London will bedesigning two sets of posters that focus on challenging homophobia,and celebrating LGBT people, both contemporary and figures fromhistory. The four winning posters will be displayed at ...
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Gabcast! incurable hippie's musings and rants #3 ...
2007-01-25 22:00:05
Gabcast! incurable hippie's musings and rants #3---Technorati tags: audio; audio blogging; incurable_hippie; rambling.
More About: Rants , Musings , Rant , Cast , Sing

Movement Photography Assignment.
2007-01-25 22:00:05
Passing TrafficZooming to HospitalGhostly PeopleMorris DancersFire SpinningSeagull Takes FlightThe six photos I submitted for my Motion Photo graphy college assignment.---Technorati tags: photography; motion photography; incurable_hippie; movement.
More About: Photography , Men , Sign , Move

Blog For Choice Day.
2007-01-22 21:58:02
Today is Blog for Choi ce Day, as organised by Bush v. Choice annually. This year they want bloggers to post on this day, telling readers why we are pro-choice.I wasn't always. A very Catholic upbringing and much emotional blackmail sucked me into the belief that abortion was very, very wrong. It was so drilled into my head that abortion kills babies that how could I *not* be against it? Who wouldn't oppose killing babies?!In school they showed us a film where we saw abortions taking place, we saw the 'products of conception' (in Catholic-ese, the unborn baby) in bin liners, and we were told and showed the full goryness of terminations.Strangely though, watching that awful film was where I first began to question my 'pro-life' beliefs. I wondered why the filmmakers had to show us those things, to prove their point. Was argument and discussion not enough? Sure, there was blood and gore, but opposing abortion on the basis of it being gory and making you feel a bit squeamish would...
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