minnesota was a police state!

here

that’s Alexis Baden-Mayer of the Organic Consumers’ Grassroots Netroots Alliance taking photos while the police scream at her that they’ll shoot!

from August 30th, after we got pulled over at gun point

 

MINNESOTA IS A POLICE STATE

today, some friends and i were at my parents, when suburbans started circling the area. then we heard and saw at least 2 helicopters circling the area.

we left and were followed by a black suburban on and off 94 and into minneapolis where we were finally pulled over by 3 cop cars on Lake and 13th.

when we stopped the police got out of theirs and pointed at least six guns at the van we were in (2 were shot guns), they ordered us to get out with our hands up one by one. we got out, walked backwards and were each handcuffed and searched (without consent), with guns on us the whole time. they then took our ids and ran them, asked us where we were staying and if we were doing anything illegal.

i asked one of the undercover people from the black suburban if we were being detained and she said “no”, i asked if we were being arrested and she said “no”, i asked if they had a warrant and she said “no”. someone else asked why we were in handcuffs if we weren’t being detained or arrested and she didn’t say anything.
then i told her i had to pee and were we going to be let go and she said it’ll just be a few minutes”

in my mind, this proves this was an intimidation tactic being used by ramsey county sherif’s department. the police officers involved were polite, even joking around with us a little, and clearly had been called in by the undercovers in the black suburban. who were these undercovers? reports are coming in that they are not FBI or homeland security, but working for the ramsey county sheriff’s department…

we were held for 20 minutes, handcuffed the whole time. this is being detained, yet we were told we weren’t being detained. they had no legal reason to follow us, no legal reason to pull us over and no reason whatsoever to pull guns on us.

this is a police state. they are doing illegal things such as raiding people’s houses, confiscating cameras and stopping people on the streets. why? an assumption that we’re a threat to the republican delegates, an assumption that everyone with a camera, everyone not in a business suit is here only to threaten these people coming to take over this town.

who’s next?

http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/aug/welcome-minnesota-out-town-activists-pulled-over-police-gunpoint

 

so, this doesn’t go too into detail about what happened, but we were followed for over 30 minutes. on and off the highway, around the mississippi river, through a McDonalds drive thru and finally to that intersection where we were pulled over. at that point it was just a relief, until we saw the guns.

when we got pulled over there were a lot of people already on the street. it was a busy intersection, and immediately a woman started taking pictures, until they screamed at her to “get out of the line of fire or we’ll shot! stop taking pictures or we’ll shoot”.  the whole thing was hilarious and terrorifying at the same time. more and more people started gathering around us and legal observers (organized by Coldsnap legal collective) appeared. we were on the sidewalk in handcuffs, but not being questioned when 2 women came up to us and asked us for our names, writing down everything that happened and then calling a friend of ours who had stayed at my parent’s house to tell him what was going on. we saw several friends, a woman biked to her house and brought us back water, other people started asking the police what was going on and taking pictures. all in all it was pretty amazing.

the last few months

i didn’t forget about this blog, or the idea of sharing experiences of radical women! but, there are times when you have to get off the internet and onto the streets. or just lay outside in the sun.

unfortunately neither of those is an option right now as i’m at work in a windowless building at a desk. who would have guessed? oh, capitolism…

in septmember i, and others from around the country, went to the rebuplican national convention. i’m going to attempt to give you a recap through some other shit i posted through out time… stay turned, bitches!!!

just do it

so, i haaven’t updated in a long, but there’s a lot to come to get caught up and shit i’ve been writing but haven’t put up. a few ladies recently said they wanted to write something but didn’t feel like they had polished their blub/article/whatever enough to put it up. my response: read everything else! nothing is polished, words are spelled wrong, grammer is misused (but you know it likes it), there’s a bit of cursing and rambling. the point isn’t to make some clear arguement or an article that would appear in a newspaper, but to faucilitate discussion, provoke thought and work on our issues together. if can confront pop culture. government, social constructs, our own internalized isms, look at cute animals AND share wicked recipes we are already particapating in a revolution. not a Ron Paul revolution, but a much better, more fun revolution which goes on inside of us. and we have to educate and liberate ourselves first in order to have the slightest hope of a truely free society. this does not require you to think of the perfect wording, spell check, make an arguement, whatever. it requires honesty.

so, if you want to say something, talk about a news articles, review a zine, or whateva don’t be scared! just do it!

May, bitch.

Sunday May 11th is Mother’s day! according to my Slingshot Mother’s Day was declared as an anti-war holiday by Julia Ward Howe.

for the month of May we here at Kisses, Bitch. (whether or not the other contributers know this) will be focusing on relationships with our mothers. interviews, articles, complaints, conversations about your mother, on your mother’s activism, or about your own motherhood are the main topic. as well as discussions on why Mother’s Day would be an anti-war holiday.
my sister (tiger crush, who knows this right now as she reads this) and i will be interviewing our own mother.

to kick things off, i’ll tell you a little bit about my own mother. she was an abortion advicate, taught sex ed and worked on counsling hotlines for 15 years. much of my childhood she was in school or working and for about 3 years i almost never saw her. there was a period of time where she worked at the minnesota children’s museum. this was pretty much awesome because i got to go there all the time and wonder around by myself (i was always a loner) and i also got lots of books and toys from the gift shop. everynow and then she’d need to make a sample of something made from one of the arts and crafts kits and we’d get to do art projects together. i developed a love of long car rides when my mother worked nights on hotlines and we would go to pick her up or drop her off at midnight, i remember laying in the backseat watching the stairs and streetlamps (both in texas and minnesota, when/if we had a car), feeling the car move, sometimes when we got there my dad would throw a rock at her window. sometimes i got to be at work with her, she would be on the phone in the other room and i would play computer games or color in her anatomy books. while i feel that my sister and brother were more involved in raising me early on, my relationship with my mother has molded me the most in who i am fundamentally- in both good and bad ways. what about you???

[note, this was partically inspired by the For Your Own Good zine, a British zine about mothers and daughters and eating disorders and their relationships, unfortunately grrrlzines.net doesn't have current info on where to get the zine and i can't find it anywhere on the internet and i have no idea what happened to my own copy, but blame my ex-boyfriends. and my mother.]

Mayday

when talking to people about Mayday there’s some confusion. generally, people think i’m talking about some pegan holiday. the rest, don’t know what i’m talking about at all.

if you’ve read much history of the United States, you know that there was a time in our country when children as young as 4 worked, when people worked 12 or more hour days on average, when there was no weekend, no safety regulations for factories, no fire escapes in factories, no accountibility of companies for the treatment of their workers. the 8hr day, the weekend, most factory safety regulations and the end of child labor were brought to us by the Labor Movement (aka. working anarchists, unionists, communists and socialists who protested, wrote pamphlets, educated their coworkers and spoke out publicly against these injustices).

Mayday was choosen as the International Workers’ Holiday. May 1st 1886 marked the beginning of a national strike for the 8 hour work day. May 4th 1886 was the day of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, where a bomb was thrown by an unknown person and police shot into a crowd of strikers and supports killing several people. 8 anarchists were arrested in conjunction with the demonstration, strike and bomb that was thrown. I read about this case in Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States and in Emma Goldman’s autobiography Living my Life. Four of the anarchists, including revolutionary Albert Parsons, were hung, 3 were later aquitted (as i said there was no evidence) and one killed himself in his prison cell with a bomb he made out of a cigar.
Mayday is not only a day to comemorate what the struggle of unionists, the labor party and the Haymarket Martyrs for the 8 hour day, but a day to protest the continuation of capitalism, war and the explotation of workers, and a day to celebrate the 8 hour day and all the advances we’ve made in worker’s rights and human rights.

Mayday parades are full of street theater, roller girls, unionists, anarchists, bike gangs, puppet and mask theater, immigrant rights blocks, etc etc etc. Mayday festivals combine the pegan aspects of fertility ceremonies and may poles with political discussions, teach ins and flyering. Concerts raise money for unions, labor and anarchist organizations. Workshops and conferences and teach ins and protests happen all around the world.

Chicago Mayday, in Haymarket Square- you can see the Haymarket Statue!!!!

in the 60’s and 70’s here in America, Mayday protests surrounded the Veitnam War and imperalism. in recent years they’ve had a similar theme with the war in Iraq and American Occupation. these past 2 years immigrant rights marches around the USA have been on Mayday.

more pictures of Mayday festivals

future Maydays?? we’ll celebrate equal pay for equal work, protest the state of fear we live in, celebrate immigrants rights and some day the end of all domination.

Improverished Art

Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth– Pablo Picasso

by Daniela, quoted from Animal Speaks.

Guillermo Vargas used a captured street dog in his 2007 Nicaraguan gallery exhibit. Central American animal welfare organizations alerted HSUS that the dog spent one day in the exhibit and later escaped the gallery.

One argument is that art can bring about social change. But if Vargas’ goal was to critique animal cruelty, he failed to recognize the hypocrisy of exploiting an animal to “prove a point.” He’s rightfully offended thousands of people, some who’ve organized a petition against him

read the rest  of Improverished Art and then sign the petition. what i wonder about this “art exhibit” is if the people who saw it were moved to do something about animal starvation and stray dog populations? i doubt it. making art can make a difference, but what makes the biggest difference in our world is changing ourselves and our actions. Guillermo “Habacuc” Vargas failed to do this. don’t make others (dog, human, bird, whatever) suffer to prove your fatilistic view or life and suffering.

Daniela has more ways you can act for animals on her blog.

the price of gas

my roommate and i biked to the corner store today to get some flour (see brownie recipe). gas there, as everywhere, is over $3.30 per gallon, approaching $3.40. myspace bulitens and email fowards are swarming with smart ways to save gas and save money on gas. people say to buy gas in the morning when it’s cooler (gas, like other things expand in heat), to buy from smaller gas companies so the large companies have to lower their prices to compete, to buy from the cheapest place in blank neighborhood, to blah blah blah. gas costs more than you’re paying at the pump.

as most of us radical ladies know, gasoline is bad for you and other living things. it’s ultimately carcinogenic. you can tell it’s bad for your lungs when you breath it and you cough afterwards. kids huffing it to get high have died, the fumes can cause asphyxiation. while gas is kept in tanks that are as leak proof as we currently can be, how much gas and carbon dioxide do you think we breath in everytime a car drives by us or everytime we fill up our tanks. think about this added to all the other carncinogenic things we breath (cigarette smoke, other greenhouse gases), eat (artifical sweeteners, canola oil) and get exposed to (many make ups, industrial cleaners) in our everyday life.

how much do you think chemotherapy and other cancer treatments cost? because you should add that to the price of your gallon.

not to mention the trees and other plants- which normally absorb carbon dioxide- that are destroyed in order to clear the way for oil refineries (such as in Alaska). or the marine life (plants, fish, algea(which also can be used to make fuel), birds, &tc) killed when ocean oil refineries leak or spill. or what will happen if we run out. gasoline’s renewability takes the amount of time it takes for algea and plants to fossilize.

people, even “liberals” and “progressives”, want gas prices to go down, but even if the dollars get reduced on the gas station sign, the health and environmental price will go up as we use more and more fossil fuels. ultimately fucking us over just as much as paying $3.50 per gallon.

honestly? i think gas should be expensive. i think it should be $4 or $5 a gallon and we should drive less. i think for buses and trucks gas should be much less (so it doesn’t drive up the cost of transporting everything else). it’s been proven that for the most part we won’t choose the option that’s better for our health and the health of others and raising the price of gas forces us to drive less. or choose public transportation. or buy hybrid vehicles. or bike. or carpool. or walk. which is what we have to do in order to ensure not only our health, but if we will have gasoline in the future.

i use to think that this line of thinking was classest, but then i remember the reason i don’t drive is actually because i can’t afford a car (or gas, even if it was a dollar a gallon). most of us working already have to take the bus or bike. what has to happen is that the people with money need to encourage public transportion to expand. more buses (especailly hybrids), more trains, more bike racks on buses and more support (both finacial and advertisement).

we talk a lot about not harming the earth, but ultimately we are harming ourselves. poisoning our bodies so we develope cancer and breathing prblems such as asthma. destroying wildlife which means less plant resources (less plants AND animals to eat and contribute to ecosystems we rely on). the pollution of the air which effects the bee population which effects the plants whcih create the oxygen we breathe. the more gas we use, no matter the price, the more we pay all around.

really fucking good stir fry

taste amazing and amazing for you!

2-5 cloves garlic (chop or press about half of it, put the rest in whole)
an onion (cut into cirlcles)
2 small purple potatoes (cut in half and chopped thinly)
1 sweet potato or yam (cut the same)

fry in oil medium heat, i recomend coconut or sesame oil for taste! stir everything around and add some salt and red pepper. when the onions are clear add some water, just to a layer over the bottom, stir and cover. then cut:

greens kale is the best. i use a blend of kale, chard and collards (because that’s what’s in the garden) A LOT of them
broccli or kaliflour (whichever you have or prefer) &
bell pepper

add the broccli and stir some more. taste and add salt, pepper and paprika. when the potatoes are soft add the greens and bell pepper. stir it all in slowly and let the greens wilt. taste and see if you need to add any seasonings and you’re done!! feeds 3-4, yo.

100 DIY sites

link i felt like should be shared, and deserved an entry. check it.

100 Best DIY Sites on the Web

if there are other diy websites you know that aren’t on that list but should be shared, please link in comment. if you don’t know how to link html:
<a href=”http://iamawebsite.com”>i am a website</a> easy.

size matters

i really want these pants. the color and design of them is off the hook! the problem?

the website only has them in sizes 0 1 5 7 and 9, and the company doesn’t seem to make anything above a size 9. i wear a size 14. i’ve had this problem before, companies not making my size (even though it’s the average size of american women).

it’s been said time and time again trendy, fun clothes are fucking hard to find in a size above 10. the fact that department stores have a seperate section for “misses” is fucked up. i’d find it less offensive if they just straight up called it the “fatty” section.

for the most part, if we want fun attractive trendy whatever, we have Torrid and other stores that specailize in our curves. and are made by 6 year olds in china… we have to go to a seperate place for our clothing!!!

Beth Ditto (one of the Kisses, Bitch. team’s favorite singers) has said in interview after interview, they don’t make enough interesting, attractive, trendy OR socaily conscious clothing for women who are, well, fucking average sized. i read someone’s blog where they talked about it and had a picture of her, below a comment from someone saying “i hate beth ditto. she’s so fucking fat and ugly. why is this unhealthy person such a role model?”. funny, i look at pictures of coked out size <0 super models and think the same thing…

the fact is this is how most people think. a fat women says “hey, i’m fat, get over it, make clothing my size” and someone says “that ugly fat bitch is talking again! she needs to learn how to keep her mouth shut, LITERALLY” (i thought of that literally bit myself, actually, most people aren’t that bright..). when we say this sucks, people react by ignoring us. even you, reader, are you thinking i should just lose some weight, eat healthier, eat less, suck it up and get to the size where i can wear those jeans?

or maybe just be happy that WAL-MART makes my size and go there to get some momos right now?!?

i do eat a lot. a lot of kale, chard, collards, and other greens. that grow in my backyard. a lot bananas, too. and black beans (which have no fat). and frozen fake meat products and pears and carrots and mushrooms and onions and sometimes fish. i eat fucking healthy and so do many other women who aren’t below a size 12.

what i think is seriously sad and fucked up is how many women are constantly dieting. few of them ever lose the weight. but they diet and diet still. even the size 0s!

even more scarry is the amount of women who weren’t skinney, but not by any means over weight who developed eating disorders almost as soon as they were called fat by someone. as if being called fat is threat on your life and well being.

fat phobia is a real phobia(with a medical name that’s not fat phobia). charaterized by the fear of becoming overweight, women can’t eat if they see someone overweight. sometimes they throw up (not on purpose) when they do.

in our country and in the international fashion world fat=ugly. what does ugly equal? seems worse than death.

being thin has become the top measure of beauty. many people argue this isn’t true and point out men are still attracted to lots of curvy bad ass chick. but you almost everyman i know will tell me how beautiful/sexy/hot a dangerously thin girl without tits or an ass is, no matter how otherwise plain or ugly she is. and when a fat girl walks by “i was scared there for a second…” or “gross” or “that gorilla’s wearing clothes”. the first insult for any woman? fat bitch.

notice how Nicole Richie went from trashy to high fashion?

what’s worse is that this mindset is everywhere. so deeply inbedded in our psychy, how could we escape? people i know talk about being “body positive” but then make comments about how important losing weight is. not eating healthy, losing weight. i hear these things out of the mouths of the most otherwise open minded self aware people. and if i say something about it they say “well, that’s not what i meant.”

but it was said. and it’s the little things that kill. yes, it’s insulting how hard it is to find clothes my size, yes it’s insulting to hear my friends shit talk other fat girls they don’t know, but it’s even more insulting to hear my friends talk about how they need to lose weight when they are thinner than me. even more insulting to hear them say that other people (thinner than me) need to lose weight. even if they say “well, it’s different with you, you’re not fat”.

everyday, multiple times a day, i am reminded that my body is unacceptable. as is most anyother woman over a size 10. this isn’t my feelings getting hurt, this is oppression.

it’s true that every woman regardless of size feels like her body is not up to par. but if you are thin you’re in, even if you don’t think you are, even if you think you’re fat. because when you’re thin thinking you’re fat, what you’re thinking is that fat is ugly. this is beyond just “body positive”. this is a reworking of thinking. it’s not just about seeing fat as beautiful it’s about seeing a person, not an overweight person.

no clothing company that only makes to a certain size should get your money. yet another post where i have to say thrift stores are your best bet. even if you fit the standard.

comment

APPLE in Pittsberg Paper
“[There's a] movement of these kids that are very politically active and serious about what’s going on in the world, and they’re only like 14-to-21 years old.”

In Search of Lost Africa
In Liberia, we are called the Congo People — my family and the rest of the descendants of the freed American blacks who founded Liberia back in 1821.

When Girls Will be Boys

The elite college he began attending last year in New York City, with its academically competitive, fresh-faced students, happened to be a women’s school, Barnard. That’s because when Rey first entered the freshman class, he was a woman.

Women Face Bias World Wide -UN
It adds that 70% of the world’s poor are women and they own just 1% of the world’s titled land

just some light weekend reading…

2 cents on trans pregnancy

I’m not commenting on my entry because this is very important and i want everyone reading this blog to understand this:

ARE WE READY FOR A TRANS MAN TO GIVE BIRTH TO A CHILD?
NO, BUT YOU’RE NOT READY FOR ANYTHING. SOME PEOPLE STILL CAN’T DEAL WITH INTERACIAL COUPLES, OH WELL. FUCK THEM

DO I GIVE A SHIT ABOUT HOW “SICK” YOU THINK THIS IS? FUCK NO.

I’M SO SORRY THAT YOUR “LIBERAL” ASS POLITICS DIDN’T PREPARE YOU FOR THE FACT THAT THERE WOULD BE THINGS IN SOCIETY YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND. YOU THINK THESE PARENTS AND PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO WOULD LOVE TO BE A MIDWIFE FOR TRANS PARENTS SHOULD GO BACK TO BIOLOGY 101? YOU SHOULD GO BACK TO KINDERGARDEN TO LEARN SOME MOTHER FUCKING MANNERS.

YOU THINK THEY’RE BEING SELFISH BY HAVING A KID LIKE THIS BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL THINK THE KID IS A FREAK? YOU’RE BEING SELFISH BY NOT CHALLENGING YOURSELF TO CREATE A BETTER WORLD FOR EVERY CHILD. YOU DON’T REALLY GIVE A SHIT, IF YOU DID YOU WOULD BE DOING SOMETHING TO PREVENT PEOPLE FROM CALLING THAT KID A FREAK.

Did your mother not teach you “if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all“? if she didn’t, sounds like your parents were the shitty parents and you should work on your shit instead of judging other people from some interviews on a talk show.

ps. no comments stating any of the above sentences i just argued will be approved. get over it.

trans pregnancy

this article is on yahoo and breaking all around. this is not the first time i’ve heard of a transgendered man choosing to get pregnant. more than that he was interviewed on OPRAH!

the things he says in the interview about his gender and the issues people had with him wanting to change are so similar to the things my transgender things have said to me.

the other thing i LOVE about this is that he seems so proud of his body!!!! this tottally challenges people’s views of gender and sex and i love that! Thomas says he has a strong male identity, but it’s “a human desire” to have a child.

is this what a feminist looks like?

i love that ani is the background music (but they spelled her name wrong in the credits…), i love that they have women of all ages/races/styles (and possibly economic backgrounds), i like they had men (who didn’t explain what they thought feminism was). but i still feel like something’s missing.

what’d you think?

vegan brownie recipe

my roommate and i discovered this recipe on the internetz yesturday. we tried it out and it was one of the best brownie recipes (vegan or not) ever!!

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar (if you’re using raw sugar, i would suggest using less cause it’s super caurse)
3/4 cup coaca powder (i used hershey’s specail dark!!)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
1 cup veggie oil (or margerine)
1 teaspoon vanilla

mix up super well, grease a brownie pan (i used a 8×8 one), and pour everything in. spread it around. bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.

i’ll admitt, they’re ridiculously crumbly. but they’re ridiculously delicious, too. enjoy, homie.