Last night I subscribed to a service to get an apartment. This is a huge move for me, I have been living with someone for over 20 years. So not only am I moving to a new city, I am going to be living alone.
Today I got an e-mail, actually I got two, I kind of did the wrong thing, but anyway I have appointment tomorrow and I might actually look at some apartments.
So right now I am excited, nervous and positively terrified.
apparently my cell phone saga is done. I say apparently because when I was reading the list of Customer complaints for Asurion, one of them was that the customer was told the phone had water damage when it didn’t. I still have to send the broken phone back so I don’t get charged a restocking fee. That is why my ordeal is not quite over yet.
When I got the e-mail from American Express stating my payment was due, I went on the website and filed a disputed charge claim. I told them, wrong merchandise shipped, I called the company, got no response and have returned the merchandise with a letter stating the problem and still had no response.
When I received the e-mail I posted in my last post, I called the number in the e-mail. I spoke to customer service, then I got transferred to technical support (Jay), Jay then said I had to speak to a supervisor to needed to know what address to send the replacement phone to. The supervisor told me the phone was being sent out.
Here is what frustrates me. When I returned the wrong phone I included a letter, in that letter was the specifics of why it was the wrong phone and what I wanted Asurion to do, send me the correct phone. I also put my address, my cell phone number, my work number and my e-mail address. I still had to call them to get them to do anything. And why did he have to get my address and phone number and e-mail address when they already had them! They had all that information from the original claim number, which was also on the letter I sent them and on every e-mail they sent me.
So I got my phone on Wednesday, June 15, 4 weeks and 7 phone calls after I filed my claim. When I opened the box, it was a brand new iPhone, it the box, shrink wrapped, just the phone I got from the store. When I went on line with American Express, there was a notation that they had contacted the company. That is what probably lit a fire under their soulless devil-spawn asses. American Express, a company that knows what customer service is, and shakes a might big stick.
David Robertson is a pitcher for the NY Yankees. His hometown is in Alabama and was devastated by the recent deadly tornadoes.
On the top right of this blog is a link to Dave and Erin Robertson’s website where you can donate money to help the people affected by the devastating tornadoes in Alabama. The money goes directly to providing people with the basic necessities of life that they need right now.
No matter what team you root for or even if you don’t like baseball or any sports, please consider making a donation, any amount of money can be helpful.
On May 4th the 16 anti-choice Democrats joined every House Republican present in passing H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act. A chief weapon in the House GOP’s “comprehensive assault” on women this bill proposes some of the most radical and draconian restrictions on women’s rights. Read the complete article here.
The Hyde Amendment prevents some federally funded health-care programs from covering abortions, allowing exemptions in cases of rape and incest, and when the life of the woman is threatened. The new bill changes the wording from rape to “forcible rape”. Opponents of the bill say the wording is to exclude woman who say no but do not physically fight off the perpetrator, women who are drugged or verbally threatened and raped, and minors impregnated by adults. Supporters say that is not true.
According to New York State Law under Sex offenses; lack of consent, the law reads:
1. Whether or not specifically stated, it is an element of every offense defined in this article, except the offense of consensual sodomy, that the sexual act was committed without consent of the victim.
2. Lack of consent results from:
(a) Forcible compulsion; or
(b) Incapacity to consent; or
The law also defines forcible compulsion:
“Forcible compulsion” means to compel by either:
a. use of physical force; or
b. a threat, express or implied, which places a person in fear of immediate death or physical injury to himself, herself or another person, or in fear that he, she or another person will immediately be kidnapped.
Let me explain, if a man comes up to me and points a gun at my head, or to my friend/parent/child and says they are going to shoot me or them unless I have sex with them, and I comply, I am a victim of forcible rape. If it turns out the gun was not loaded, I am still a victim of forcible rape, because I was in fear of immediate death or physical injury to myself or another person. I think most reasonable persons would agree with that statement. Oh wait, this is the GOP not reasonable people, a bunch of fucking morons.
The law of the State of New York seems to support the supporters of this bill, note the following:
Rape in the third degree.
A person is guilty of rape in the third degree when:
1. He or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person who is incapable of consent by reason of some factor other than being less than seventeen years old;
2. Being twenty-one years old or more, he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person less than seventeen years old; or
3. He or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person without such person`s consent where such lack of consent is by reason of some factor other than incapacity to consent.
Rape in the third degree is a class E felony.
“Forcible compulsion” is included in lack of consent and rape in the third degree is a felony, a crime that will get you time at least a year in state prison and as long as four years (which is a pitiful amount of time but that’s not today’s discussion).
The real problem, as I see it, with this bill and the ‘forcible’ rape wording is the matter of ‘incapacity to consent’
3. A person is deemed incapable of consent when he or she is:
(a) less than seventeen years old; or
(b) mentally disabled; “Mentally disabled” means that a person suffers from a mental disease or defect which renders him or her incapable of appraising the nature of his or her conduct. or
(c) mentally incapacitated; “Mentally incapacitated” means that a person is rendered temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling his conduct owing to the influence of a narcotic or intoxicating substance administered to him without his consent, or to any other act committed upon him without his consent. or
(d) physically helpless; “Physically helpless” means that a person is unconscious or for any other reason is physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act. or
There is no reason to think that a woman falling into any of the above situations wasn’t really raped, yet it appears the GOP feels this way. The result is a woman who has already been traumatized, perhaps feeling guilty because she DIDN’T fight back or was drugged or drank too much, now has to deal with the GOP violating her and taking away her rights.
This is my main problem with this, because this isn’t just about paying for abortions for rape and incest victims, it the GOP thinking they are the shit and can just take away our rights, preventing women from buying health coverage that covers reproductive health care, including family planning. They want to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. Which is something I have never understood, they don’t want to pay for abortions, they also don’t want to pay for birth control! And while I don’t support Planned Parenthood, I am in full support of women’s rights. I am a single woman, I have to rely on my income to support myself and this is definitely a concern.
While although I’m not advocating we descend on Washington with armored tanks, (although it is a tempting idea just to see them running away after shitting their pants) this is definitely something to keep our eye on.
There a few reasons for my statement in my last post:
Do I think this will change things in the U.S. and abroad? No not really, terrorism is still out there,
On May 1, 1945 Germany announced the Adolf Hitler was dead, he actually committed suicide the day before. While many may say he was not a terrorist, he was a dictator, he is considered by many to be the embodiment of evil and is responsible for the death of millions of innocent people, just because they didn’t fit his requirements to be a part of the perfect race. Today we have Neo-nazis, who may not have the same ideals as Hitler, they do much to spread hatred, racism and fear.
One could consider Hitler to be a state sponsored terrorist, much like the Fatah of the PLO who were responsible for the murder of the athletes of the Israeli 1972 Olympic Team in Munich. Do you remember this image? I remember seeing this, I remember being horrified by what happened. When it was over, 11 Israelis and a German policemnan were dead. Five terrorists were killed and three were captured and held in Germany. A month and a half later Palestinian terrorists hijacked a Lufthansa jet and demanded the 3 terrorists be released. Germany complied.
Despite Mossad assuming the responsibility to hunt down kill those responsible for the terrorist attack, one of the leaders, Abu Daoud, remains at large, he even wrote a book titled “Memoirs of a Palestinian Terrorist,” as well as, “Palestine — A History of the Resistance Movement, by the Sole Survivor of Black September.” For which he was awarded the Palestine Prize for Culture in 1999 for his book.
On February 26, 1993, an explosion occurred in the World Trade Center. The explosion caused six deaths, 1,042 injuries, and nearly $600 million in property damage. Middle Eastern terrorism had arrived on American soil delivered by a small band of terrorists that scurried away from the scene unnoticed, later to be identified as Islamic fundamentalists. The leader’s plan was to collapse one of the towers, and he thought/hoped the debris from that tower would knock down the other tower.
April 19, 1995 marked the arrival of homegrown terrorism with the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh was the kid next door. The bomb exploded with enough force to shatter one third of the seven-story structure to bits and lifted pedestrians off the ground. One hundred and sixty eight people were killed, more then five hundred were wounded.
And then we have the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. One of those dates where almost everyone remembers where they were. My friend’s husband saw a plane flying south down the Hudson, he thought it was weird, there normally aren’t planes flying there. My future boss came around the corner in the office and said, ‘The World Trade Center just got bombed.’ I went and looked at the T.V. in his bosses office, then ran to call my mother. I found a report that 2,752 men, women and children died at the World Trade Center. I’m not sure how accurate that is. Although I certainly knew what terrorism was I am not sure I had heard of Al Qaeda before this, now it is definitely a familiar name.
So even if the death of bin Laden affects Al Qaeda, lessening its power, there were terrorist before, there will continue to be terrorists.
On the last possible day I got the car inspected. I am always nervous when I go, not being particularly savvy concerning cars, I am always worried something is wrong that I have no clue about.
The car passes, with only two things I had to get fixed. A brake light and the wipers. Stitch had been telling me for weeks the car needed new wipers. He was right. Then when I went to pay, the bill was much more then I was expecting, as I questioned her we went through the charges, inspection, brake light, 4 wipers …. wait, how many wipers? Yes that was a mistake. So they fixed that, I paid the bill and I don’t have to worry about inspection for another year.
And that’s all, says she.
New York State has an inspection program, all vehicles registered in New York have to have a safety inspection and an emissions inspection every 12 months. My car is due for its inspection in April. A fact I was reminded of when I went through a check point on Tuesday. I went through it twice once on the way to my doctor and then on the way back. I guess the police in my town don’t have anything better to do on Tuesday afternoon.
During the winter, a snow plow broke my driver’s side mirror. This would cause my car to fail the inspection. I had told the boy to take car of it, and he didn’t, so this week I was scrambling to find a mirror. There were mirrors available online but I was worried I wouldn’t get in time. So I called the local auto parts store, they said they could get it, to be delivered to their store the next day.
The boys went to get it since the store closes before I get home. I got a text from Stitch, “The mirror is black not silver hahahaha”. There was no way I could get another one before the end of the month. His response to that was “Ok. So itll just look funny. Very funny. Lol funny.” “Gives the car spunkiness”
So the car is now unique, I was driving with Gwen and going “It’s black! It’s black!” She grinned at me. “Amy says she is a work of art.” Good way to look at it.
And that’s all, says she.
Maybe I should have waited until today to post about Anne Braden, since this is the first day of Black History Month. My whole feeling on such things is we shouldn’t reserve good deeds for a certain day, or we shouldn’t just acknowledge the efforts people have made at a certain time. If someone has done something to make life better for other people, it should be acknowledged, there shouldn’t be a set time to remember them. Thanksgiving Day is one of those times that people talk about being thankful, why just thanksgiving? If we have a wonderful family or friends shouldn’t we be thankful everyday? If we have a good life, good friend and health, and we believe God is responsible, shouldn’t we thank him every day, not just on a random Thursday in November?
The actual reason I had for posting that video and song is I have been listening to it a lot the past week. I do that, I listen to one artist for a while, picking out which songs are my favorite. This is one of my favorite songs by Flobots. Also someone on Twitter was asking it anyone had family members who would object to a mixed relationship. That is not exactly the way he phrased it, but that is what he meant. Of course I do, with my Daddy’s southern roots. So all of a sudden, this song has greater meaning for me. So I decided to put it on my blog.
Anne Braden, a young, white advocate of racial justice. She grew up in segregated Alabama, but it was not until her years in college that she began to actively speak out against that practice. In 1951, she led a delegation of southern white women organized by the Civil Rights Congress to Mississippi to protest the execution of Willie McGee, an African American man convicted of the rape of a white woman, and was subsequently arrested and put in jail.
Thursday, 18 July 2013
May 21, 2008
NYT > THE CITY
Belleza
just a (transplanted) city girl 