Musings from my everyday life...

Some post ago I wrote about the United States not having been founded on Christian principles but instead on Age of Enlightenment thinking which was in many ways in opposition to this idea.

Well here is an op-ed in the New York Times on the persistence of these evangelical groups to remake history and use their extremist thinking to bolster their specific brand of racism and intolerance.

"What Christian nationalists know — and many of us have yet to learn — is that you don’t need a majority to hijack a modern democracy. You just need a sizable minority, marinating in its grievances, willing to act as a bloc, and impervious to correction by fact or argument. Make this group feel good about itself by making other people feel bad about themselves, and dominion may well be in reach."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/26/opinion/project-blitz-christian-nationalists.html

My daughter's movie is out and I attended the premiere last night which featured all 26 animated shorts. Of course I am a little biased but I was astounded at the result they achieved and it looks like some industry people are very interested. I am very happy and excited for her.

I ended up not doing the music because what I had presented did not please her collaborator and rather than risk an 11th hour conflict they chose to go with an independent composer and paid a reasonable sum for the 4 minutes of music. Problem solved and my feathers were not ruffled in the least.

Nevertheless the animation is what counts here and I think they hit the jackpot with this one. I couldn't be prouder of her after 3 years of hard work in this program and 6 intensive months on this film.

Just to put things into perspective regarding the effort required, a 1.5 hour Disney or Pixar film can employ upwards of 500 animators...

https://vimeo.com/270234350

It looks like we are getting closer to conclusively identifying the brain structural differences of transgender people. Hence, if you suffer from gender dysphoria an MRI exam could eventually confirm that you are indeed transgender.

From the story..

"Analysis of around 160 participants showed that biological males with gender dysphoria - the experience of discomfort or distress due to their biological sex - had a brain structure and neurological patterns similar to biological females, and vice versa.

The analysis revealed that the distinct neurological differences are detectable during childhood.

The findings, presented at the European Society of Endocrinology annual meeting in Barcelona, are likely to provoke controversy among groups who argue gender identity should be matter of personal choice and not medical definition"

The last statement I disagree with since transgender people don't choose to be the way they are. You are either trans or you are not. Also I can see ho…

I will admit I was a little apprehensive about visiting the endocrinologist and I had built up some scenarios in my head as to how it might go.

For example, I imagined a quizzical look from a hospital admitter as she tried to make sense of the woman in front of her with the male ID on the medical card. Of course no such thing occurred and this young millenial woman treated me with utmost respect and didn't bat an eyelash as she took down my information. No doubt I am not the first nor the last transgender person she admits.

Also my travel there by public transit was uneventful as to be ho hum but this is the way things have become for me now when out on public. There is no nervous thrill just the happiness of being myself.

Then I check in with the doctor's receptionist and nothing special happens either. She registers me and says

" Have a sit Miss and he will call you"

Then I waited and waited and waited some more until 2 hours later he finally saw me which was not a…

A new study on the connection between money and happiness proves what we already instinctively knew; namely that beyond the basic needs of shelter and sustinance and maybe a little to spare we aren't happier when we possess more. The happiest people have strong human connections and a sense of community as giving them the greatest source of satisfaction.

Not surprisingly, Nordic countries once again prove this metric is correct by being in the top 10 (Canada is number 7). All of them have strong social safety nets and put priority on people and not just economic wealth for the few. In other words, the idea of I get mine and I am not my brother's keeper is not part of the basic DNA of these nations.

Which country is number one on the list? Finland.

The US has a problem in that a 1% layer of mega millionaires controls everything but then half the population makes under $30,000 which is a staggering statistic. With these kinds of numbers there are many families who fall under the…

My son, the nephew who had recently come out to his parents and I spent a day together recently. He is one year younger than my son and a proud gay young man who is very much investing himself in his identity and unabashedly expressing it to the world. My brother and sister-in-law know this is not a choice and yet they bristle at his pride regarding this issue. They prefer he be more subdued which prompted a conversation between the three of us.

When my nephew asked me how early I knew I was trans he was flabbergasted at how long I was able to suppress it. Of course he had no way of relating to the world I was born into and how nearly impossible coming out was back then for most of us. Instead, his reference point was this new and braver period in our history.

He impressed with his level of education on LGBT issues and proved himself to be a virtual encyclopedia. I recall being his age and struggling to find scraps of information on the T side of that equation while this young man'…

Trump's America has emboldened the crazies. Those who might have been less brave in an earlier time are now showing up on YouTube videos berating people. A man in New York who goes on a tizzy because restaurant workers are speaking Spanish; a "Latinos for Trump" Republican congressional candidate films herself going into the toilet to insult a transgender woman who is in the stall; at a Starbucks, a man demeans the woman behind him in line who is wearing a hijab and tells her he doesn't want to be killed by her kind.

This is the venomous atmosphere encouraged by the lowlife currently holding the reins of power and a Congress too timid or too much in agreement to hold him accountable.

There is a malaise in this version of America which must be addressed and the cockroaches which have come out to feast in this new hateful environment must be driven back to their dark spaces where they belong. Racism and intolerance are running more rampant because an administration who…

When I revamped the look of my blog one of the things I deliberately removed was the counter of people who follow it and to pay less attention to my traffic. Also over time my writing began to focus increasingly on what interests me rather than exclusively on trans issues. We are all the sum of a complex series of parts and those aspects are all important but in the early days of this blog, when I was struggling with guilt, shame and angst about who I was, I was single minded in my pursuit to sort out those feelings. I was writing for me and I didn’t particularly care who read it. It was my therapy and if another trans person responded it was a bonus.

As my traffic increased I began to feel some pressure to keep the blog as interesting as possible which makes one think about the target audience and who will stop reading it if you express political views or focus too much on the technical aspects of being trans instead of being lighthearted. Hence I strove for a balance that I thought …

I met Patricia who is the CEO of this new start up company and her husband. Their office is their home which is a unit in a converted 1940's school in the neighbourhood where I grew up.

I am not going to leave my company for a tiny startup like this but I did promise to help them and will moonlight by providing some of my time at some agreed rate which I intend to keep very reasonable.

Their project is green and sustainable to the environment and I find their bravery commendable in wanting to tackle something this substantial with limited resources. You could tell that Patricia valued my input and at the end of our session she told me I was an "interesting woman" and she was glad she had met me. The feeling was entirely mutual.

So while this mandate will not be a gateway to a transition it will form part of my expanding identity in the world as an out transgender person.

I wrote about Jordan Peterson the other day and now here is David Pakman, who is one of my favorite YouTubers, commenting on the rise of faux intellectualism and the draw it provides for some.

Whether it's Ben Shapiro's abrasive mile a minute style or Peterson's haughty academic tone, it seems that style over substance is working on those who are starved for eliminating political correctness (also read as manners) in favour of a license to be more vulgar towards feminism, minorities or the dreaded liberal left.

For the record, I prefer David's brand of intellectualism....

"Was it summer when the river ran dry,
Or was it just another dam.
When the evil of a snowflake in June
Could still be a source of relief.
Oh how I love you, I once cried long ago,
But I was the one who decided to go.
To search beyond the final crest,
Though I'd heard it said just birds could dwell so high.

So I pretended to have wings for my arms
And took off in the air.
I flew to places which the clouds never see,
Too close to the deserts of sand,
Where a thousand mirages, the shepherds of lies
Forced me to land and take a disguise.
I would welcome a horse's kick to send me back
If I could find a horse not made of sand.

If this desert's all there'll ever be
Then tell me what becomes of me.
A fall of rain?
That must have been another of your dreams,
A dream of mad man moon.

Hey man,
I'm the sand man.
And boy have I news for you;
They're gonna throw you in gaol
And you know they can't fail
cause sand is thicker than blood.
Bu…