(no subject)

[valancystirling]

Lots of people have dropped me from their friends list recently. I'm not really surprised, but in my highly hormonal state, I'll admit my feelings are a bit hurt. Whatever. In all honesty, most of the people who unfriended me I didn't read anymore anyway. But suddenly I'm feeling antagonistic, so I'll post some things about myself that maybe you didn't know that will totally turn you off. I'm inspired by many of the drama-seeking posts in various communities I read.

*I am very much anti-circumcision.

*I do very much believe that if you smoke or drink while you're pregnant, you are a fucking idiot and shouldn't have a kid. Double that if you smoke around a baby or children.

*I am very much pro breastfeeding. I have no judgmental comment on this one, but just provoke me and you'll get a ton.

*I feel very sorry for atheists.

*I think spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a wedding that will last a matter of hours is ludicrous.

*I think buying huge gas-guzzling SUVs is one of the most naive and short-sighted things a person can do.

*I think people who bash diets like Atkins without knowing anything about it are idiots. Yes, tell someone they're fat AND stupid.

*I believe that you should not have sex with anyone you are not willing to raise a child with. Whoa, suddenly everyone hates me!

*I am sickened by the mentality that abortion is a totally acceptable method of birth control.

*I am pro-choice, when the woman in question has made responsible choices up to that point.

*I believe we have no business in Iraq.

*I think sodomy laws are idiotic.

*I believe this country is doomed.

*I believe gay people have as much right to be legally married as straight people.

*I believe that if someone tells you they don't want to be your friend anymore, you need to back the fuck off.

*I believe that we are all personally responsible for our actions.

*I do not believe gun-control is a worthwhile cause.

*I believe anyone who would molest a child should be tortured to death.

*I believe rapists and child molestors should be castrated.

*I feel strongly that if you want to be taken seriously, you need to use spell-check.

*I believe too many people take advantage of the welfare system, cheating those with real need.

*I believe marijuana should be legalized.

*I believe too much emphasis is placed on this nebulous concept of "national security" and too little is placed on actually taking care of the American people.

*I believe we are better off without a TV.

*I find people obsessed with "fandom" to be highly annoying.

*I am massively annoyed by people who try to sound intelligent and/or deep and philosophical, and/or spiritual.

*I believe much of the news we are fed is lies.

*I despise holier-than-thou, self-righteous Christian-types.

*I believe we have enough immigrants. Time to close our borders.

*I believe that if you don't personally believe that disorders like bipolar disorder are real, you need to keep your fucking mouth shut.

*I believe you don't have to agree with someone on everything to remain friends. I believe it is more important to respect other opinions and recognize the right we all have to express them as non-judgmentally as possible.

Comments

[fi.livejournal.com]

hey, if they're dropping you from their friends lists, then you're better off without them!

I agree with the vast majority of what you've written, and certainly wouldn't condemn you for having alternative viewpoints to me on the other things. Anyone who would is a tosser. :-)

[gingerkat.livejournal.com]

I believe that though I may disagree with you on some points, you have every right to express your opinions.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I should have put that on my list.

:)

[wireworkelf.livejournal.com]

Huzzah, lady! I agree whole-heartedly with a lot of what you've said.

As for the rest... you're a big girl. You can make your own mind up about that, and I respect the fact that you're sticking to your guns even when you know they might not be popular viewpoints.

For the record, tho, while I may not hate the Atkins diet, I hate the low-carb fad, because most people who are into it haven't actually paid attention to the nutritional information supplied by Atkins and are just trying to cut all carbs out of their diet completely, which is very much as unhealthy as trying to cut all fat out of one's diet completely.

[kurtkwagner.livejournal.com]

I'm always hurt when people drop me. Rejection should always hurt.

I'm going to waggle big foreskin laden-cocks in your face.

I agree that smoking/drinking when you are pregnant is bad, but it's way worse to do that than do it around kids already born. The damage to a fetus from a parent who smokes or drinks is much worse than the damage to an already born child who is exposed to these second hand.

I think God made milk come out of titties for a reason: to feed a woman's offspring. You can't beat nature.

I feel sorry for atheists now, too.

I agree that a wedding doesn't need to be expensive.

I despise how people buy SUVs. I totally agree on that. Buying those things is tantamount nearly to treason to me. It's extremely harmful to our nation. Maybe if you've got a family big enough to fill all those seats, but most of the people buying those are just putting one or two people in them 99% of the time.

I won't sleep with a girl I don't think would make a good mother to MY children. I agree.

I agree that abortion is not a method of birth control, and I abhor it, but the goverment has no place telling people they can't get abortions. The goverment is too incompetent to manage less important things than a woman's health, they can't be trusted with a woman's uterus.

I believe we have plenty of business being in Iraq. But if Bill Clinton wasn't a dickless bitch and had ordered air support for the Kurds and The Shiites when they rose up against Saddam in the 90's, they would have taken care of this mess themselves and we wouldn't have to be sending our kids to die over there.

Sodomy laws are idiotic. I'm glad the supreme court agreed.

I believe strongly in this country. We're still the greatest nation on earth and we're getting better all the time.

I believe firmly in civil unions.

I believe in giving people convicted of sexual offenses the option of castration since it's the only real cure there is for their perversion, but the goverment isn't competent enough to properly administer that type of punishment

The people who need welfare and section 8 can't get it. Those who don't can. Ask anyone who works for those agencies and they'll tell you that.

Marijuana should be legal, I agree.

TV, like guns, is a good thing in the right hands. Our problem in this country is that we have a generation at hand that was raised by it; a generation whose parents were so lazy they used TV as a babysitter. This produces fucked up people. But there's a world of good programming on TV.

I wouldn't call the news lies insomuch as hyped up edutainment.

I think God does a perfectly fine job of judging people so he doesn't need me to do it for him.

I think legal immigrants are what made this nation great and I firmly believe that legal immigrants continue to make this nation great. Legal immigrants appreciate the shit out of America and they treat it with respect and are largely better Americans than those born here because they really appreciate it. Illegal immigrants, however, are a pox on our society. We can thank the democrats for making them one and the same in the national conciousness, and business-crony republicans for doing the same once they realized that illegals are cheap labor no matter what they cost this country otherwise.

[room342.livejournal.com]

I agree with points 18 and 19. The numbers of abuse are far too high. That proves that on some level, there is tolerance for it- which is infuriating. If they were tortured to death abusers would think twice before doing something "harmless" or "for the kid's own good". Where do you stand on the enablers (I guess you'd call them), like the mothers who rationalize their boyfriend's abuse; should they be tortured equally?

[nalidoll.livejournal.com]

circumcision: i have no real opinion on it, though i guess it makes sense to those who worry about the child later wanting to convert to Judaism? because, yeah... that would *suck*.

smoking while pregnant: i agree completely, in theory. however, i threw things at J's head for reminding me of this fact at the time. i fully admit that i was absolutely insane during pregnancy. and i do mean this as relative to my normally insane state.
i did not drink while pregnant, and instead spent my time composing a list of things to get revenge upon those around me for, due to stupidities on their part while they drank during my pregnancy. every mother-to-be needs a hobby, and i don't knit.

weddings: hah! this is precisely the reason i will prolly have an actual "real" wedding at some point down the road. i've been married too many times without even signing a paper... i figure one "real" wedding spread out between all of them will average out to a simple ceremony for each. or something.

gun-control: my only strong thoughts/opinions about guns come in those moments when i want a tower, scope and extra ammo... so i guess i am a poor choice to speak on this one. LOL

spell-check: i especially agree with this about those who want to be taken seriously as writers. however, all of my spell-checkers think "prolly" is a word and are utterly confused about the o/ou and the er/re thing... and as we all know i have a strange relationship with my shift key. it is a Good Thing i do not consider myself a writer.

immigrants: no! we need more people to immigrate from cool places, so that those countries are less crowded and decide to make it easier for me to run away and live there instead!
because you're right.. this country is doomed.

oh... and having sex with people you won't raise a child with: heh. yeah... my family is more prone to following that whole actual-biological-programming thing. you get the strongest genes, which is often not from the most stable type. we find those later. i am an odd-ball in my family. the actual father of my child is the one who is sticking around to raise her.

breastfeeding, atheists, SUVs, abortion, welfare, etc...
dammit! i agree with you on all the others. that's no fun.

eh. i guess i won't pick a fight and go off in a huff, today.
hah! you're stuck with me.

(yes, i am in a Mood. how did you guess? it is prolly a good thing i have no way to get myself to Mexico, today... ya know?)

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I agree about the low-carb dieting thing. How is it that a person can make such flippant decisions about their health? Anyone who believes you can survive and be healthy on a zero-carb diet is so uninformed I can't even allow myslf to acknowledge their existence in my world. A little education goes a long way, people.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I've thought it over very carefully, and I believe you and I can remain friends.

And for that last one, I think I meant illegal immigrants but didn't specify. Although, without them, we probably couldn't afford to eat out ever again, or eat oranges, or any crop that is hand picked for pennies an hour.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I believe that if you live in an apartment, and you know the kids above you are being beaten, as in you hear them screaming, see the bruises, etc, and you don't call the police, you should be horsewhipped. Enabling is every bit as bad. It's saying, yes, it's okay to beat or molest that child, or any form of abuse. Anyone who stands on the sidelines and keeps quiet about it shares the guilt.

Torture them all.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I hope I'm invited to your "real" wedding.

I think I'm going to have to reevaulate my position on immigration based on your logic. Pick a country, and we should start a widespread campaign aimed at them why they should be moving here.

[kurtkwagner.livejournal.com]

Why wouldn't we be able to remain friends?

[room342.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering, since my old apartment, which screams are telltale, because I heard a lot of screaming there, and I do here, too, but isn't some of it just playing or having a tantrum? I'm reading a book about abused children and I was hoping by the end I'd have a good idea of the signs.

[acheron-hades.livejournal.com]

I agree with a fair number (probably a majority) of the above, but I won't go through them, because as you say at the end, that's not really the point.

* I am massively annoyed by people who try to sound intelligent and/or deep and philosophical, and/or spiritual.

And yet I appear to still be on your friends list. An oversight? ;-)

* I believe that if you don't personally believe that disorders like bipolar disorder are real, you need to keep your fucking mouth shut.

"Real" in which sense? I would certainly say the behaviours described by such labels exist, and (which I suspect is your point) not merely affections or excuses. I'm not convinced that it's a discrete "illness" though, more of a convenient diagnostic bucket for the psychiatrists ..

[cealdrach.livejournal.com]

"I am very much anti-circumcision"

Why?

Just so you know, you've now made me selfconcious about my own genitalia, and for once it's not about the size.

=P

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I was teasing :)

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Not sure about that. Maybe choose that moment of screaming to go upstairs and borrow a cup of sugar, for a quick peek. I think that's what I'd do.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

"Real" in the sense that you acknowledge there is a valid cause for certain behaviour; real in the sense that you recognize there are biological factors involved, not purely psychological; real in that you don't accuse the person claiming to have the disorder to be making it up or looking for attention or a way out of personal accountability.

[kurtkwagner.livejournal.com]

I do am be smart, Julie.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

It is medically unnecessary, despite popular opinion. I view it as genital mutilation. I have never yet heard a convincing argument for it. "It looks weird" is not a valid argument. I don't know why this country is so obsessed with it. It's a tradition based on...what?

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

:P

[nalidoll.livejournal.com]

invited? hah! it's going to be a "real" wedding, but this is me you're talking to. you'll prolly be drafted to help me make something stupid that will cause us all more swearing than the wee little detail it adds is worth.

this is my plan:
to go through all of the frustration, aggravation, irritation, etc. that i can, so that i have no choice but to make the marriage work because Dammit i worked hard on that frelling wedding!

okay. not really. if i wanted to do that, i'd just invite my ex m-i-l to help me decide on... oh... anything. as it is, i am planning to have it out of the state, should things go as presently planned, because then his family won't really be able to make it.

as for the country... it has to be somewhere with a good breakfast. cuz... you know.

[nalidoll.livejournal.com]

it's based mostly on an idea that it is more hygienic, like alot of the weird things we do.

i've also known people who chose it because it was easier to potty train the boys, especially if the father was circumcised.

personally, i said if i had a boy i would leave it up to J. because, well... he's sorta got more "how a man feels about this issue" experience than i do.

[room342.livejournal.com]

Why upstairs?

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

Sorry, for some reason I read that your neighbors were above you. No idea. Go next door instead.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

Hey, just because you're completely wrong about everything doesn't mean we can't still be friends.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

:)

It's all about tolerance.

[room342.livejournal.com]

No, I was just trying to figure out if it was that I'd told you about the neighbors before, or if it was your intuition*.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

Were they upstairs?????

You never told me about this.

[room342.livejournal.com]

Looking at the apartments from the front, their living room is right on top of ours- I'll have to figure out when I get there exactly what's what, but the point is that, yes, I had always thought of them as being upstairs, and you grasped that.
The garage is right next to ours. From my room I think I hear them in back of me. They have at least one balcony facing the pool. Ours is on the opposite corner (that is, across) and facing the parking spaces. I'll have to find out if the front door is actually upstairs from ours.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

For some reason I was just so sure you had said they were upstairs. I must either be psychic or really losing it.

Regardless, I imagine a family squall would be a great time to knock on their door anyway. Catching people off-guard is always fun.

Hello there!

[marelis.livejournal.com]

I haven't commented in a while so I thought I would see where I stand with your list...

*I have no real thoughts on circumcism, most likely due to the fact that I am not having children soon. :)

*Yes, I do believe it's not smart to smoke or drink while pregnant, but I do have highly responsible friends who have had a BEER or two during their pregnancy and I don't think less of them, nor could I say I would *never* have a drink while pregnant.

*I'm all for breast feeding.

*I feel sorry for atheists as well.

*I agree, spending a ridiculous amount of money on a wedding is silly. I have known WAAAY to many Bridezilla's, my ex-sister in law probably being the best of the worst.

*I drive a Ford Escape, which is an SUV...whoops. ;)

*I know quite a bit about Atkins, South Beach, the Zone, etc., and have come to the conclusion that moderation, in EVERYTHING, is key. Also, refined sugars make my stomach protrude. ;) I have recently taken an interest in reading up on the "raw food" diet. I am going to try to get 70% of my daily food intake from raw food at some point. I think the summer is a good time to start.

*I guess, in a way, I agree with not having sex with anyone unless you'd raise a child w/them. But I look at it more like I wouldn't have sex with anyone unless I had really, really intense feelings for them...so it's comparable.

*Abortion certainly should not be used as birth control.

*I am most definitely pro-choice, because "accidents" do happen and sometimes it's not in anyone's best interest to bring an unplanned child in to the world.

*Amen on Iraq.

*I am passing on the sodomy issue...not due to a difference of opinion, but due to the lack of knowledge on the actual laws.

*I don't know that I personally would use the term "doomed", however I respect your opinion and outlook.

*I strongly support gay marriage, although I am a CATHOLIC (gasp!).

*Yes, leave well enough alone. Breaking up with friends is a messy business though.

*We are most definitely responsible for our actions and should actively try to lead by example.

*I think we need gun control.

*I do not think I believe in the death penalty, therefore I cannot agree with torturing anyone to death.

*I think it would be wise to castrate child molestors and rapists.

*Yes...it's "ridiculous", not "rediculous". ;) I hate poor spelling and grammar, however I am not saying I'm PERFECT, just well above average.

*Yes, a lot of government sponsored assistance programs are terribly abused. It's really a shame.

*Legalization is not a bad thing. Look at alcohol and tobacco!

*The average American citizen is completely neglected by this "national security" on a day to day basis, so yes, it's NOT working.

*I definitely think TV is not the healthiest thing, but I do see the benefit in letting people "escape" for an hour or so. I do think people need to watch WAY less and we don't need 459 channels.

*If by "fandom", you mean interest in public figures, you would for sure find me annoying. ;)

*I agree with you on people that try to come off as so "deep"...but how did you EVER live in Boston?!

*I believe the news is highly "spun", but not necessarily "lies". I think we need to be careful where we get our information from.

*I am not a big fan of holier than though types either, because they generally take what the Bible says and make it apply as they see fit to benefit their own positions.

*Good point...

*I have have seen the devastation of mental disorders and I get so highly fed up with people who are not sympathetic. It's really a relatively silent pandemic and needs more attention.

*I actually like a little conflict in my life and do enjoy other people's view points.

NEW ADDITION:
*I hate how radio stations only play the same 30 songs over and over and over and over all damn day long.

*Just because a neighborhood houses people from a lower economic class than what you might be in, it doesn't mean it's unsafe. (I encounter people who think this way all the time since I live in the Detroit area).

I hope this was fun for you! ;)

?

[marelis.livejournal.com]

I give people who talk very harshly to their children and who hit them in public the evil eye, but I do not say anything...well, at least not loud enough for them to hear me.

BUT, I also give parents who are letting their children run around like little terrors in places such as churches, schools and fancy restaurants the evil eye. I think if their children are behaving like that in public, it must mean they are severly lacking disipline at home, which is tragic.

[glaukopis.livejournal.com]

Breast feeding is hard. I believe in it. I'm doing it. But it is one of the hardest things I've ever done.

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I think that's very cool. I didn't feel all that strongly about it before I joined all these stupid pregnancy communities, but now I am just sick of hearing all those people who say they "tried so hard" all of one time and then gave up, claiming it obviously wasn't "right for my baby". Whatever.

How long are you planning to breastfeed?

Re: ?

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I think, as in most things, there is a happy medium. Kids don't need to be beaten to be well-behaved. Nor do they need to be sweet-talked into behaving. I feel like most of the time I should just mind my own business, but if I knew a child was being seriously abused--and I don't mean spanked or just yelled at--I would definitely get involved.

[glaukopis.livejournal.com]

I'm going to breastfeed until he's six months. I almost gave up at three weeks though for various selfish reasons. One day it just clicked and got easy. Keep in mind that I still supplement once or more a day with a bottle of formula. It allows my husband to be involved with the feedings and keeps me sane. Having a baby in my lap most of the day, constantly relying on me alone for food is huge.

[shannon28.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I didn't know some of these things about you, and I definitely don't agree with all of it (most of it though, sure), but I think that I like you even more now.

Why do you feel sorry for atheists?

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I feel sorry for most people, and I randomly invent reasons to justify it. But on this point, it seems very scary to think there is no god of some kind, even if this is all just a puppet show. Very lonely and empty or something.

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG

[ocainte.livejournal.com]

No...wait, that's me.

This list should be widely distributed to pubs and other public places as a conversation/fisticuffs starter.
Also, it should also be brought on first dates by one of the parties so you can walk away knowing exactly who you're with.

Re: WRONG, WRONG, WRONG

[valancystirling.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. I think the sooner you can label someone a freak, the better. Why waste time?