The one where I say everything about everything

It has been too long since I wrote to you guys. I decided to take the month off from my writing challenges because work has been crazy busy this past month, with having 20 cases going through Court in one week and then spending the next three weeks madly trying to catch up on everything we stopped doing just so we could shove these 20 matters through the system, and I'm now only a week behind on all of my work, so I'm starting to find my energy again. Yay me.

I have actually started several posts over the last three weeks, unfortunately each and every one of them has only gotten so far before I lost my enthusiasm, so they are all just sitting dormant in my list of posts waiting for me to come back and love them. I have decided to just come on now and drag several of them together into one larger post and just spew absolutely everything that has been in my head for the last few weeks out at you in one large go, to save wasting any more time agonising over when I'm actually going to post again.  So in no particular order, here are some of the things I've noticed happening in the world recently.

Victim shaming is still a thing
Now because I'm not actually in America and I get all of my news from over the ocean via click baits like the best people always do, I'm never sure whether what I'm reading really is as prevalent as the sensationalist news websites want me to think they are. But one theme that has come up time and time again is instances where girls are being made to cover their bodies up, for fear of exciting any men within a 3 mile radius. You're going to have to pardon my French here, but for once I don't really care if this is a really widespread thing. For this to have happened even just once pisses me off. I hate that women are once again being made responsible for the actions of men everywhere. Blaming victims of rape for the actions of their rapist is NOT ok. Ever. And to force women to cover their shoulders, or their knees, or their chests just to make sure they don't get raped is not good enough. It would be a better use of people's time and energy to teach people not to rape. But that's too difficult. It's easier to make women cover up than make men man up and treat young girls with respect. Of course I do not think that all men are rapists, that's just silly. It's just as silly as expecting women to control their bodies as well as the urges of the whole male population. When I was a teenager I could barely even control my own hair, let alone the behaviors and actions of any and all males I walked past. To expect this of our daughters now is as unfair as it has always been and it needs to stop.

America finally gave homosexuals the same rights as everyone else
Yay America! Congratulations you guys for recognizing that this needed to happen. Now if somebody could have a quiet word with the people who run my country, that would be great. Of course Australia has always been the younger sibling to you guys, we're always several steps behind, running madly in your wake just trying to keep up with our cooler big brother, so the fact that you guys have changed your laws can only mean that it is an inevitability down here too. I am very happy to say that the dialogue is already starting, and while it is still only on a small scale here, from little things big things grow. I was actually really excited that I was alive and old enough to understand the world around me when this change happened. To be there to watch history  happen is an amazing thing, and I hope that by the time Miss K is older and more aware of her world, the idea that homosexual people are not allowed to get married will be an outdated and ridiculous concept for her, just like the idea that people of different races being banned from marrying each other is outdated and ridiculous to me. Now I know that not everybody is happy with this history changing decision the Supreme Court has made, and the insults are flying thick and fast. This will change. It will take time, but it will become less and less as time goes by, so keep riding the storm people, you're doing great.

We're all going to die
I get a teensy bit tired of all the news posts that try to tell me the next big thing that is going to kill me, or my children, or my pets, or the entire world. It's usually always cancer, and it's always depressing as all hell. Well I've got a news flash for you guys, and just a warning, this is a huge spoiler, but we're all going to die. That may come as a surprise to some people, but none of us is immortal. Sometimes I think the fun part is discovering exactly what it is that gets us in the end. Right now I'm banking on lung cancer or emphysema being the bastard that sends me to my pine box, but it would be a delicious twist if I was struck down by an errant toilet seat falling out of a plane. Scientists will never find a cure for death, because overpopulation is a bad thing, and we need people to die. Mainly because you horny buggers won't stop having sex, which ultimately leads to more babies, and we're really running out of room already as it is. (Except in the centre of Australia. There's heaps of room there, so if you're feeling a bit cramped, and don't mind living somewhere that even most animals refuse to inhabit, come on down.) But the point is we all die. Our bodies are only built to survive for a finite amount of time, and we need to come to terms with this.

Phew, I feel better for having got all of that off my chest. I'm sure I've noticed other things that I'm forgetting about right now, but I have a comfy bed, and a chocolate bar calling my name, so I'm off to enjoy my night. Stay tuned my lovely readers, because the next time I appear out of the mist it will be to do one of my incredibly rare reviews, this time of an amazing product I've just discovered, and I can't wait to share it with you guys.

Equality for all

Ok it's time for me to jump on my soapbox yet again, as I find one thing after another that bugs the hell out of me. And today I'm getting political too, which is something I normally try to avoid doing. So strap yourselves in dear reader as we talk about marriage equality.

So by now you should all be aware that my little brother Ben is gay. My family has known he was gay since he was very young, and we love him not despite this fact, but because he is a wonderful, loving and caring person. His sexual preferences are just a small part of what makes him Ben. His partner Tristan is also a wonderful person, with an absolutely filthy sense of humour, making him one of only a few people in this world who can out-gross me. (No small accomplishment let me tell you) Now Ben and Tristan have been together for a while now, and recently they got engaged. This would be a happy announcement for them if it wasn't for the fact that gay marriage is not recognised or legal in Australia.

There was a vote yesterday in Australian parliament in an effort to finally recognise gay people's rights to marry, unfortunately it was unsuccessful, with a 98 - 42 vote against the bill. There are a lot of angry people in Australia right now, and a lot of them aren't even gay. This affects a lot of people that I love and care about, not just my little brother. I have other family members that are gay, friends that I have known since primary school, people I have worked with over the years, and none of them can get married because the government thinks it is icky.

Now I don't ever want to get married. I get bored way too easily with relationships, and the thought of being tied to a man for the rest of my life makes me feel queasy. But that is just my opinion, and doesn't stop millions of other people wanting their union to be recognised in the eyes of the law. Given that the government will recognise your same sex relationship if it means that they can pay you less money in pensions, refusing to allow same sex couples the right to marry and make their relationship completely binding just seems hypocritical.

I know that there are a lot of arguments against same sex marriage, a lot of which stem back to religion. I am not even going to get started on the religious side of this, mainly because I am still trying to find proper information that hasn't been skewed to fit the argument a person is trying to make. But I will say this, it is getting to the point where even the religious people are starting to say enough is enough, and support same sex marriage. There will always be the die hard zealots who refuse to accept that marriage should be for everyone, but as we raise more and more generations that are less and less religious, how long before this argument dies out completely? I also feel that the only people who should be allowed to play the religion card are the people who live all of the rules in the bible, not just the ones that they pick and choose at random.

At the end of the day, I feel it is important to realise that homosexuality is not a choice, these people did not decide to be gay, they were all born this way, the same as I did not choose to be straight. Refusing them the same rights that straight people get simply because they are genetically different is discrimination. We stopped refusing to allow multi-racial couples to marry decades ago, how long do we have to wait until homosexuals are treated as equals too?

Maybe it's time this decision was taken out of the hands of the politicians, who are too scared of offending the Christian right wings and into the hands of the people who it truly affects. The people whose taxes pay their salaries, whose votes ensure their jobs and whose support can be moved quite easily to someone else who is willing to do something about this. Maybe it's time the rest of the country got to say who they are allowed to marry.

Ok rant over for now. If for any reason my opinions offend you, I refuse to apologise, as I am not ashamed that I feel this way. If however you agree with me, good for you, but don't keep it to yourself. Let the world know that you support gay marriage too, and maybe the people making these rules can finally see that this isn't just some small problem that will go away if they ignore it for long enough. 

As always I welcome any feedback you guys may have, but given the way this argument tends to bring out the angry in people I will ask anyone who wants to leave a comment to try to leave the name calling out. I'm happy to have a grown up conversation with you guys, but I am not afraid to call you a big meanie if I have to.