I LOVE My New Meat Locker!

"O wind, rend open the heat,
cut apart the heat,
rend it to tatters."
-- Hilda Doolittle
"Death rides on every passing breeze..."
-- Reginald Heber

If Death rides on every passing breeze, then I will happily be his bitch. As I have previously posted, I hate the heat. I don't like being hot... well, I mean, temperature hot, not machisma, charisma hot...

The Prince Consort and I finally broke down and bought an air conditioner for our bedroom. It is so hot in there at night... well, you know what I mean... and it is just unbearable to fall asleep in, although, the Prince can fall asleep at anytime. This is an issue for us, so I won't go there. If I did, I would just get angry... Let's just say, he falls asleep quickly and I could strip him and drag him into the middle of the road naked and not once would he wake up. Sometimes I even put my hand under his nose to make sure he is still breathing! *GGRR* Anyhoo, it is tough for me to fall asleep in general, but the heat makes it even harder.

I have included a picture of our new air conditioner, just to bust those who don't have one :) It has a timer that we can set to go on, so that it is nice and cool by the time we go to bed. I highly recommend it! Of course the Republican Princess and her main squeeze have had a similar set up for years. Oh, how I should have followed her lead!

I do have to confess that at work it is still awfully hot and all I did today was fantasize about the frigid air that comes out of our new, beautiful iced baby. I love that machine... I really do. I think I may even like more than the cat... Well I won't go that far, but it is close! I have to be brave... the Prince and I agreed that we would only turn it on at night, so as not to run up too bad of an electric bill. (Utto, I have a feeling that the Dowager Queen is going to take exception with the grammar in that last sentence.)

I do have a sinking feeling that it will end up being our little bunker. It's only June, so we may breakdown by the August heat wave. But I must remain stalwart and valiant!

Stay Cool and Safe!

¡Los Cumpleaños Felices a Zorra de Virginiano!

"To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am."
-- Bernard Baruch
"You know I like my girls a little bit ohder!"
-- The Virginian Vixen (Back in the day.)
"Some friends play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one's nearest kin."
-- Proverbs 18:24
"Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there."
-- Judith Viorst

So, the Virginian Vixen turned 3010 today. Yes, she is younger... I have been thinking about her all day today. Not that I don't think of her often, but we have always made a big deal with our birthdays.

We have known each other since 6th grade and I would say, have been good friends since 7th grade, but best friends since high school. She and the Enforcer moved down to Virginia in (I think) 1992. I actually think that I have blocked out the year. Anyhoo, I still miss her awful. She, the Enforcer, and their gorgeous little daughter have made a lovely life for themselves down there.

Even after all this time, it saddens me not to see her everyday. You see, we were practically conjoined at the hip back in the salad days. We did everything together. We vacationed together, lived together, sang together, ate together, celebrated holidays together, mocked others together, and of course, here is the big one, drank together.

This went on for a number of years. We were like Laverne and Shirley. Yes we were them one Halloween. There was one golden Summer, where our apartment was the place to be before and after our time out at our favorite bar. Actually, I think it went on for longer than a Summer. From Thursday to Sunday, we worshipped Dionysus.

We understood each other so much, that we finished each others sentences and didn't have to explain anything to each other. We just knew. The connection was really a gift. I do think at one point, there may have been whispers about us. Of course, that was nipped in the bud when our penchant for playing drunken tongue tag with some juicy piece of man candy became public ;)

We had so much fun. I pine for those days more than I should. No responsibility, just fun, fun, fun... The memories are as crystal clear as if they happened yesterday. We both have made new friends, but no one will ever mean more or be as close to me as she. I will always be Wilma to her Betty and I will always cherish the memory of her waving that $1 bill over my head up in Montréal. BTW... I bet Abdul the Tool was a terrorist!

So, thanks for being born and may you be blessed with many, many years of healthy life. And may I fall in a big ass pile of money, so we can visit you every month!

Stay cool and safe!

When you think you have heard it all...

"As long as there is rape ... there is not going to be any peace or justice or equality or freedom. You are not going to become what you want to become or who you want to become. You are not going to live in the world you want to live in."
-- Andrea Dworkin
"Rape is a culturally fostered means of suppressing women. Legally we say we deplore it, but mythically we romanticize and perpetuate it, and privately we excuse and overlook it."
-- Victoria Billings
" The history of woman is the history of the continued and universal oppression of one sex by the other. The emancipation of woman is her restoration to equal rights and privileges with man.... Need we wonder, then, at the sad spectacle which humanity offers us? Its hideous wars, its social abominations, its foul creeds, its treacheries, vices, wants, diseases, lusts, tyrannies, and crimes are the natural outcome of the subjugation of one half of the human race by the other."
-- Tennessee Claflin

I can't even express the rage I felt when I read this news story. I would like to think that I try my best to be tolerant of other races and religions. I try to understand them and respect their ways and accept that their beliefs are just as important as my own. When I hear a story like the following, I just want to chuck all of that out the window and nuke all the men who subjugate women. Is it just coincidence that the majority of them seem to be Muslim? Quite a plateful of food for thought. BTW, N.O.W., why don't you get off your lazy, liberal, lobby kissing asses and get involved. If you have such political clout, why don't you use it?!

UP woman forced to 'marry' her father-in-law rapist

Wed Jun 15, 6:39 AM ET

A rape victim in Uttar Pradesh is being forced by village elders to "marry" her rapist -- her father-in-law, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Community leaders in Charthawal village, backed by local Muslim clerics, believe that by being raped, 28-year-old Imrana's 10-year marriage has been nullified under Islamic law, The Asian Age newspaper said.

Holding a special council on Sunday, village leaders ordered the mother of five to leave her husband, Noor Mohammed, and live with her parental family for seven months and 10 days and make herself "pure" again, The Age said. It did not say how she becomes pure.

After that, she must "marry" her father-in-law and live with him, along with his legal wife.

"She... will then be like a mother to Noor Mohammed," the paper quoted local cleric Shamim Ahmad saying.

Her four brothers have agreed to the edict. She has not but in India, victims of crime often have nowhere to turn and with even her own family supporting the edict she may have little choice.

Police are now investigating and say they plan to arrest the father-in-law. They refuse to comment on the village elders' ruling, saying it is a sensitive religious issue.

Stay cool and safe! And Yoan, thanks for all you do in the name of freedom in Iraq. With freedom, suffrage will come to the Iraqi women! Hopefully, one country down, with many more to go. Let's hope they are like Dominos!

"It's not the heat, but the humidity..." Yeah, yeah... screw you.

"What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."
-- Jane Austen
"They do not sweat and whine about their condition"
-- Walt Whitman
"If I wanted to feel what Vietnam was like, I would have frickin' gone there!"
-- Queen of the Land

I am hot... damn hot... and Walt, all I can DO is sweat and whine about my condition. I have pretty much wilted over the past few days. It is muggy, icky, and it is pissing me off. I don't like the heat... I never said I liked the heat. The heat sucks. I do not worship Ra. This is why I live in New England, to get away from the white hot intensity of a thousand suns!

The Einsteins who built the college that I work at failed to add an air conditioning system to their plans. Needless to day, one oscillating fan does not make for a happy, cool, calm, and collected Queen.

Another thing... I absolutely adore the Prince Consort, but if he says one more time "You don't know what hot is", I may have to hurt him. I have yet to respond with "Bite me", but I am pretty close. It is my love for him that I keep in perspective that he was born in Alabama, so he does know hot. I have been to Marion in the Summer and it certainly does make Hell seem like an Alaskan cruise... well, my idea of what Hell would be.

He did gleefully point out to me that it is hotter here right now than it is in Alabama. And how is this suppose to entertain me or make me feel better?

I think a better comment could have been, "Oh dear, let me get you an ice cold Michelob Light and I will rub your feet while a naked Roy Keane and Alan Smith fan you with palm fronds." Yes, that would have been more appropriate, don't you agree?

Even Roy and Alan are giving thumbs up to the idea! ;) Hee...hee... I do amuse myself.

Once I get out of my heat funk and become less busy during the evening hours, I will get back to posting regularly.

Stay cool and safe... oh, and Bro' don't even think about bringing up Hawaiian heat... I WILL hurt you!

A Saudi Renaissance Man?

"In the post-industrial age, women feed, clothe, and nurse their families (without much direct assistance from anyone else) by cooking, cleaning, driving, shopping, and waiting."
Ruth Schwarz Cowan

Mohammad Al-Zulfa is my kinda of Saudi. It seems he had the cojones to suggest that women be able to drive. Of course, as one would expect of the rest of the male Neanderthals ruling country, they are outraged by the suggestion. Here is the text of the article. I think it is worth taking up space here:

Saudis Outraged Over Women-Drive Proposal

By DONNA ABU-NASR
Associated Press Writer

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- He just wanted his colleagues in the government's legislative arm to discuss the possibility of conducting a study into the feasibility of reversing the ban on women drivers - the only prohibition of its kind in the world.

But Consultative Council member Mohammad al-Zulfa's proposal has unleashed a storm in this conservative country where the subject of women drivers remains taboo.

Al-Zulfa's cell phone now constantly rings with furious Saudis accusing him of encouraging women to commit the double sins of discarding their veils and mixing with men. He gets phone text messages calling on Allah to freeze his blood. Chat rooms bristle with insulting accusations that al-Zulfa is "driven by carnal instincts with 454 horsepower."

There even have been calls to kick al-Zulfa from the council and strip him of his Saudi nationality.

The uproar may be astounding to outsiders. But in Saudi Arabia, where the religious establishment has the upper hand in defining women's freedoms, the issue touches on the kingdom's strict Islamic lifestyle.

Conservatives, who believe women should be shielded from strange men, say driving will allow a woman to leave home whenever she pleases and go wherever she wishes. Some say it will present her with opportunities to violate Islamic law, such as exposing her eyes while driving or interacting with strange men, like police officers or mechanics.

"Driving by women leads to evil," Munir al-Shahrani wrote in a letter to the editor of the Al-Watan daily. "Can you imagine what it will be like if her car broke down? She would have to seek help from men."

But al-Zulfa contends neither the law nor Islam bans women from driving. Instead, the ban is based on fatwas, or Islamic edicts, by senior clerics who say that any driving by women would create situations for sinful temptation.

It is the same argument used to restrict other freedoms. Without written permission from a male guardian, women may not travel, get an education or work. Regardless of permission, they are not allowed to mix with men in public or leave home without wearing black cloaks, called abayas.

Some 50 women who defied the ban and drove in November 1990 - when U.S. troops were protecting Saudi Arabia during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait - were jailed for one day, their passports were confiscated and they lost their jobs.

The driving prohibition has forced families to hire live-in drivers, who, strangely, are allowed to be alone with women. Al-Zulfa said clerics have deemed this a lesser evil than driving. Women whose families cannot afford to pay $300 to $400 a month for drivers rely on male relatives to take them around.

Al-Zulfa brought up the issue a month ago in an open session of the Consultative Council, an appointed body that acts like a parliament.

The session focused on a new traffic law, and the Council members were discussing government statistics about more than 5,000 traffic deaths each year. They also were discussing the fact that the large number of foreign drivers - about 1 million - have economic repercussions.

"I know that talking about women driving is taboo, so I decided to take advantage of our discussions to bring up the topic," said the Western-educated al-Zulfa.

Al-Zulfa, 61, said he proposed that a study be conducted to review the issue, arguing that allowing women behind the wheel would save Saudis both money and lives - since he believes women are cautious drivers.

Al-Zulfa suggested that only women over age 35 or 40 be allowed to drive and only in cities. On highways, he said, they could drive if accompanied by male guardians.

Al-Zulfa put the proposal in writing and sent it to the council's presidency so it can appoint a date for discussing it. But apparently worried about the conservatives' reaction, council head, Sheik Saleh bin Humaid, has not responded.

Despite the harsh outcry, not all the reaction has been negative.

Abdulrahman al-Rashed, a Saudi who is general manager of Al-Arabiya television, wrote in a recent column in Asharq al-Awsat paper: "It's inconceivable that in a country of 25 million, a third of them are women who wait for a driver every day to take them to school, the hospital and relatives' homes."

Many women activists also welcomed al-Zulfa's suggestion. But others lashed out at him for using the issue to project himself as a reformer.

In a strongly worded article, Wajiha al-Huweidar said Saudi women will not allow "the intellectuals to shine and their names to glitter at our expense.

"We will not permit anyone and we have not appointed anyone to speak on our behalf," she said.

Get with the program men. I wonder if the Saudi women have heard of Lysistrata?

Stay cool and safe!