The Angry Nurse

WTF is going on in this country? It’s like “Attack of the Aging White Male”, or “The Man Strikes Back” these days.

Could we please just accept that everybody is as equal, and has the same rights as everybody else, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, etc…, and move on? Please? We have more important things to do.

“I could never have sex with a person whom I have seen in embarrassing bathroom situations or heard snorting and farting all night - that’s not just disgusting, it’s completely incompatible with intimacy.”

The problem is that true intimacy is gained through sharing the unkempt moments of life. People snore and fart in their sleep. It’s a well documented fact. While I’m not even remotely implying that listening to that is somehow romantic or relationship building, it is part of what makes your mate your mate. And witnessing someone pee isn’t, for most people, the deal-breaker you apparently believe it to be.

Additionally, if you find the idea of sleeping with a man “repugnant” and have been married “numerous times”, you may want to work some issues out before you get married again.

I can’t take it anymore! The overly discussed etiology of “thug”, the twisting of anything that describes someone’s color as racist. It’s driving me to drink! I am a middle-aged white male. I was born middle class, but fell to lower/working class at age 8. I have lived in “nice” neighborhoods, and I have lived in “ghetto” neighborhoods. I have seen black friends made uncomfortable in stores, and I have been denied service for being white. Racism is a two way street. Real racism, complete with vitriolic hate speech, bigoted opinion, and violence still exists. Why water it down with the PC oversensitivity? All this talk of “Hipster racism” is, in fact, just a repackaging of white privilege cum guilt.

First off, “Kill Whitey” parties are stupid. That said, what makes them inherently racist? The Miami beat? The grinding and sexualized dancing? Or the fact that it’s a bunch of predominantly white twenty-somethings clubbing to hip-hop? I understand the racial undertones, but am left to wonder what if it were a group of mostly black twenty-somethings slow dancing to Barry Manilow? The name “Kill Whitey” may be crass and in poor taste, but it isn’t used derogatorily.

Second, making a joke about race may easily be racist in nature. Or, it may be an open acknowledgment that makes light of the differences we have. A joke about how [ethnic group]s are [stupid, lazy, drunks, cheats, etc…] is racist. A joke that, *within a particular context*,  jabs at a stereotype may well not be. (And getting the context right is the really tricky part.) It could also be that we have no other way to talk about race and racial issues. In her article “A Complete Guide to ‘Hipster Racism’” at Jezebel, Lindy West ably points out:”What’s actually complicated is our country’s relationship with race, and our utter ineptitude at talking about it. We suck.” She goes on to say “Not our best, white people. Not our best.” I take issue with this last bit because, as I stated, racism is a two way street, and white people, privilege aside, don’t actually have the corner on this market the way we are meant to believe. We’re *all* inept at discussing race.

Third, we have cultural differences that are racially based. When the black community was first making real in-roads to the middle class, there was a lot of talk about how being middle class didn’t mean casting aside your black heritage in favor of white culture. So now white kids are becoming increasingly accepting of, and embracing (in this example) black culture. Why are we criticizing this as racist?  A diverse society is a multicultural society. We should be able to openly discuss cultural differences without fear of being labeled as racist, even if that discussion gets a little messy or unrefined.

Two last bits. 1) Urban Outfitter’s Navajo Hipster Panties are just trendy underwear with a bad southwestern print. Any legal action from the Navajo Nation is, IMHO, motivated by money, as this case is based upon trademark infringement. 2) Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist

They are all Bat$h#t crazy. Gingrich lives in a dream world where he is still relevant, Santorum believes the US should be a theocracy, and Perry won’t be true to his own record. Sweet Mother of Science!

When my oldest girl, M, was little, her mother tried with all her motherly might to ban Barbie from the house. Despite her best efforts, one day M (age 4) asked for a Barbie while we were at the store. My wife started to talk to her about how Barbie misrepresented women and gender stereotypes - a conversation she had had with the girl many times before. Suddenly, M put up her hand and said “Mom, it’s just a doll.” We bought her Barbie PJs that day, too.

My point: If you just talk to your kids about the message, they can deal far better than we give them credit for. Lighten up, folks.

Both my daughters were in Girl Scouts, and they live normal, happy lives. As a matter of fact, I was talking with their wives just the other day about what a crackpot that guy is.

You make a number of assumption­s there. I am a sub-prime borrower. I take good care of my car, because I want it to outlast my payments. If something does happen to it, I have no way to easily replace it without getting another sub-prime auto loan. I bought my house with a non-tradit­ional (no income verificati­on) loan, which I refinanced with a traditiona­l mortgage as quickly as I could. My mortgage gets paid every month, even if other bills do not. I am a Registered Nurse. I work nights, as I have for 7 years, because I cannot afford to give up the pay differenti­als. My wife was laid off from one job, then another. Her unemployme­nt dried up a long time ago, but there are no real jobs in our area. We live paycheck to paycheck, hoping that nothing goes wrong. Am I a no-account deadbeat? No. I am a well educated, hard working American, just as you are. While I understand your point, I resent the generaliza­tion that everyone who gets sub-prime financing is a deadbeat. Some of us are just trying to get by.

Saying “It’s the banks fault”, or It’s the Government­’s fault” is oversimpli­fying the whole problem. The real problem is that the banks and large corporatio­ns have co-opted the system of representa­tive government­. Politician­s are under so much pressure to raise funds, they become beholden to the corporate check writers. The first step in reforming the financial system and promoting income equality is to truly reform campaign funding. Donations capped at $5000 and only from private citizens would be a good start. But the system is a closed loop. What politician is going to reform himself/he­rself out of tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributi­ons?