Sunday Reads: Time to take Earl on a picnic…again.

You all remember this song and video from the Dixie Chicks? I have the video posted down below, with the lyrics.

I bring old Earl up again because the latest school shooting is another example of this Earl problem that we see every fucking day:

It is that Toxic Masculinity problem I want to address.

Have y’all taken note of this key point…that doesn’t seem to be getting a lot of press:

There is always a girl, innit?

Fucking hell.

Mother of victim says alleged Texas school shooter asked her daughter on date – CNN

Sadie Baze says she keeps expecting her daughter to walk into the house, but Shana Fisher was killed Friday, one of 10 people gunned down at her high school.

“She’s never going to walk through the front door again,” Baze said.

Baze told CNN that the alleged shooter, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, had been making advances toward Shana, who just turned 16, for the past four months, asking her to date him.

A week ago, during class, Shana stood up and told Pagourtzis she wouldn’t go out with him, the mother said.

Baze said Pagourtzis previously dated Fisher’s best friend and she had told told her daughter “you don’t date your friend’s exes.”

The family of 17-year-old Pagourtzis, accused of killing 10 people and wounding 13 others at the Texas high school Friday, issued a statement expressing condolences to the victims.

The family members said they are “as shocked and confused as anyone by these events that occurred.”

Pagourtzis is a “smart, quiet, sweet boy,” they said.

The statement, issued through a law firm, says the family is cooperating with investigators and will make no other public comments until the fact-finding stage is completed.

“While we remain mostly in the dark about the specifics of yesterday’s tragedy, what we have learned from media reports seems incompatible with the boy we love,” they said.

Pagourtzis is being held without bail and is accused of capital murder of multiple people and aggravated assault on a public servant. He has not entered a plea.

Robert Barfield, the attorney for Pagourtzis, said his client is “not doing well” and is “confused.”

The suspect won’t face the death penalty if he is convicted. Under Texas law, offenders who are under age 18 and charged with a capital offense face a maximum punishment of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years, according to Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center.

He is not doing well? Tough shit. Confused? No…he knew what he was doing.

Yesterday, officials identified those killed as teachers Glenda Perkins and Cynthia Tisdale, and students Jared Black, Shana Fisher, Christian Riley Garcia, Aaron Kyle McLeod, Angelique Ramirez, Sabika Sheikh, Christopher Jake Stone and Kimberly Vaughan. Here is some information on the people who were killed:

Victims of Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas identified today – CBS News

Sabika Sheikh 

The Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C., confirmed that exchange student Sabika Sheikh was killed in the shooting. Sabika was an exchange student with YES, which is funded by the U.S. State Department. It provides scholarships for secondary school students from countries with significant Muslim populations to spend one academic year in the U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent his “deepest condolences” to her friends and family in a statement Saturday.

“Sabika’s death and that of the other victims is heartbreaking and will be mourned deeply both here in the United States, and in Pakistan,” Pompeo said.

Shana Fisher’s aunt posted on Twitter that Shana was in the art room at the time of the shooting. She announced her death on Twitter.

Please go to the article to read about the rest of the victims, and remember…the killer said he did not shoot anyone he “liked”…Texas school shooting: 10 killed in Santa Fe High School massacre – The Washington Post

The affidavit states that the 17-year-old told police that “he did not shoot students he did like so he could have his story told.”

Yup, he knew exactly what he was doing. And if an ex-girlfriend was on the victim list, or some girl who did not treat him with the kind of attention he felt was “owed” to him…it would only be appropriate to add Pagourtzis name to the list of mass murderers who killed because they felt their women victims were entitled to them.

So it appears, this ex-girfriend and the girl who was being harassed by Pagourtzis may be the same person?

Texas school shooter taunted victims during rampage: witnesses

By reading this NY Post article, it doesn’t seem to me that this “kid” had any confusion during the murdering part of his shooting spree…

“My friend Trent was in the classroom and said after [Pagourtzis] would shoot a student he would sing, ‘Another one bites the dust!’” Sante Fe High School sophomore Kole Dixon, 16, told The Post of a classmate, whose last name he asked not be printed.

“He also kept playing a kamikaze song over and over as loud as he could,” on his cellphone, Dixon said of the shooter.

Pagourtzis had the same kamikaze military anthem on his now-deleted YouTube page, Dixon said.

Pagourtzis had earlier bragged of wearing a “Rising Sun” insignia on his black trench coat, explaining it signified “Kamikaze Tactics,” according to a photo and text posted on his also-deleted Facebook page.

New details of the 17-year-old’s sick sense of humor went well beyond the previously reported “Born to Kill” T-shirt he wore, and his taunt of “Surprise!” as he blasted through the walls of an art class supply closet.

“They hear the gunman in the classroom next door yelling Woo Hoo! and firing more shots,” mom Deedra Van Ness said in a Facebook post Friday night, recounting details from her by her daughter Isabelle, who survived unscathed but was covered in blood.

“Surprise, motherf–ker!” the shooter hollered as he fired into the closet wall, instantly killing two of the half-dozen students who had barricaded themselves inside with Isabelle, Van Ness said her daughter told her.

“Are you dead?” he later asked from the other side of the closet.

“Do you think it’s for you?” he also joked, as cell phones left behind in the classroom rang unanswered.

I mean, what else should we expect right?

The main stream media gives these assholes a pass, continuously, just take a look at this article from the NYTs:

This is as “tough” as the thing gets:

Recently, a young man named Alek Minassian drove through Toronto trying to kill people with his van. Ten were killed, and he has been charged with first-degree murder for their deaths, and with attempted murder for 16 people who were injured. Mr. Minassian declared himself to be part of a misogynist group whose members call themselves incels. The term is short for “involuntary celibates,” though the group has evolved into a male supremacist movement made up of people — some celibate, some not — who believe that women should be treated as sexual objects with few rights. Some believe in forced “sexual redistribution,” in which a governing body would intervene in women’s lives to force them into sexual relationships.

Violent attacks are what happens when men do not have partners, Mr. Peterson says, and society needs to work to make sure those men are married.

“He was angry at God because women were rejecting him,” Mr. Peterson says of the Toronto killer. “The cure for that is enforced monogamy. That’s actually why monogamy emerges.”

Mr. Peterson does not pause when he says this. Enforced monogamy is, to him, simply a rational solution. Otherwise women will all only go for the most high-status men, he explains, and that couldn’t make either gender happy in the end.

“Half the men fail,” he says, meaning that they don’t procreate. “And no one cares about the men who fail.”

I laugh, because it is absurd.

“You’re laughing about them,” he says, giving me a disappointed look. “That’s because you’re female.”

But aside from interventions that would redistribute sex, Mr. Peterson is staunchly against what he calls “equality of outcomes,” or efforts to equalize society. He usually calls them pathological or evil.

He agrees that this is inconsistent. But preventing hordes of single men from violence, he believes, is necessary for the stability of society. Enforced monogamy helps neutralize that.

In situations where there is too much mate choice, “a small percentage of the guys have hyper-access to women, and so they don’t form relationships with women,” he said. “And the women hate that.”

Emphasis is mine, of course, but read the whole article and tell me if it isn’t soft on this fucker.

(Take a look at the “Times Picks” comments…they are somewhat forgiving, and not from the feminist POV at all.)

(But that is the New York Times….)

Fuck you New York Times:

Back to the Peterson thing real quick…

Fucking Toxic Predatory Men… and their “enforced monogamy.”

I saw this tweet from Mona Eltahawy after I wrote my post above. I am glad I am not the only one who saw the connection.

Those with toxic masculinity …are they stupid dicks or what?

So take a look at that thread…it sounds familiar. I am sure that Dak or Boston Boomer may have brought it up back when the shooting/killing/slaughter occurred. If that is the case it is nothing new…but for those of us who have memories that last as long as a dog’s farts, or say a horse’s fart… it is a reminder. That these domineering men are also crazy assholes.

Let us feed them some black-eyed peas….yeah.

Mary Anne and Wanda were the best of friends
All through their high school days
Both members of the 4H club, both active in the FFA
After graduation
Mary Anne went out lookin’ for a bright new world
Wanda looked all around this town and all she found was Earl
Well, it wasn’t two weeks after she got married that
Wanda started gettin’ abused
She’d put on dark glasses or long sleeved blouses
Or make-up to cover a bruise
Well she finally got the nerve to file for divorce
And she let the law take it from there
But Earl walked right through that restraining order
And put her in intensive care
Right away Mary Anne flew in from Atlanta
On a red eye midnight flight
She held Wanda’s hand as they worked out a plan
And it didn’t take ’em long to decide
That Earl had to die, goodbye Earl
Those black-eyed peas, they tasted alright to me, Earl
You’re feelin’ weak? Why don’t you lay down and sleep, Earl
Ain’t it dark wrapped up in that tarp, Earl
The cops came by to bring Earl in
They searched the house high and low
Then they tipped their hats and said, thank you ladies
If you hear from him let us know
Well, the weeks went by and spring turned to summer
And summer faded into fall
And it turns out he was a missing person who nobody missed at all
So the girls bought some land and a roadside stand
Out on highway 109
They sell Tennessee ham and strawberry jam
And they don’t lose any sleep at night, ’cause
Earl had to die, goodbye Earl
We need a break, let’s go out to the lake, Earl
We’ll pack a lunch, and stuff you in the trunk, Earl
Is that alright? Good! Let’s go for a ride, Earl, hey!
Ooh hey hey hey, ummm hey hey hey, hey hey hey

Songwriters: Dennis Linde
Goodbye Earl lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

So let us get on with the picnic shall we?

Here is the wedding sermon from yesterday, if you have not heard or seen it….

Subversive? Uh…I don’t know. It all seemed like a big fuck you from Harry to the Royals, if you asked me. I still feel the sermon was important, which is why I posted it here. There was a lot of talk about how culturally inclusive the Royal Wedding was, which I think this next tweet touches on perfectly.

And remember:

But back to the Royal Wedding, a few funny tweets:

Just a few more things before we go…

"When you’re trying to end a human rights abuse, it’s illogical to carve out an exception for the people most likely to be affected" – Our #FraidyReiss tells @nytimes why bills to #endchildmarriage must set the marriage age at 18, not 16 or 17. Link to story in bio.

A post shared by Unchained At Last (@unchainedatlast) on May 19, 2018 at 1:12pm PDT

But not every girl knows this – that’s why empowering and educating girls is so crucial to ending child marriage! Tag a friend who agrees that #GirlsRightsAreHumanRights. #EndChildMarriage . . #empoweringgirls #empoweringwomen #metoo #metoomovement #womensmarch #genderequality #childrensrights #girlsrights #bethechange #makeadifference #girlcrew #girls #educateagirl #femaleempowerment #becauseiamagirl #plancanada #itsagirl #childmarriage #feminist #feminism #womenandgirls #unwomen

A post shared by Because I am a Girl (@biaagcan) on May 19, 2018 at 7:00am PDT

Empower Girls : Empower the World #vikalpsansthan #equality #endvaw #endchildmarriage #youth4equality #genderjustice #TogetherWeCanEndvaw

A post shared by Vikalp Sansthan (@vikalpsansthan) on May 17, 2018 at 5:38am PDT

I love that phrase…Empower Girls…Empower Women…Empower Daughters.

My friend Rachana Sunar over in Nepal has been working on building a Kindergarten for disadvantaged children and a center for mothers. With some funds from a Norway free church women’s group. They have a new building with five rooms…she sent me these pictures that I want to share with you:

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This is what she says to me in her email:

Dearest JJ

Our vision is to empower young mothers who have married as a child brides.  Our aim is to teach them life skills and vocational education, parenting skills and give them income opportunity.

So we have got 15 mothers for this year.

We meet them every Saturday to discuss in women righs.

They are so excited to learn.

Hope one day we can have you here taking some classes.