Bits and Pieces, Shoved Together

I’ve not done a written post in a while, and although this may be personal, as opposed to me griping about what in the world rattles my gilded bird cage, it’s more humorous too. So, I thought I would share this, because it really did make me laugh tonight.
So, recently an unnamed group of people have taken a dislike to me, the main situation starting in January with one particular individual. And as follows, their lackies were soon to drag their knuckles not far behind, as I expected really. Of course though, optimistic me had went out of my way before to try mend bridges, but those efforts were thrown straight back in my face by these neanderthals (to be fair, I’m surprised and relived it wasn’t their waste, because they look the type to do so). 
The unnamed main individual, however, had hurtled torrents of abuse at me beforehand with no provocation on my behalf, then continued to talk degradingly about me to other people, including my boyfriend/ best friend, who couldn’t give a rats behind about any of her opinions, let alone any considering myself.
There is a big difference, though,  between myself and these extremely unusual people (not meaning to sound big headed, but this is the God’s honest truth). They think that I may be all nicey nice and pleasant and not willing to put up a fight or even give them abuse (not even behind their back), and that they’re so fantastic at it that they should play with that bitterness and horrible side of themself as much as they possibly can.
But here’s the funny side; I’m not nasty and cruel towards people the way they are, because I’ve already perfected that wicked side of myself, and I no longer even need to toy about and practice with it. It will always be there for when I want to use it, and clearly they’re still just learning through their own jealous and poisonous little strives at trying to make other people feel miserable.

Well, I don’t mean to burst that sour little bubble, but currently instead of responding to abusive attacks to myself with rage and fire, I’m trying something a little more difficult than what the people attacking are doing; I’m being nice. Like I said: I’ve perfected the art of being something worth not messing with, and I’m not going waste my energy using that when I could be spending it trying to make myself a better person.

It’s about time people like them took a leaf out of that book, otherwise they will spend their lives drowning in their own bitterness in that selfish little bubble.
If you can’t be nice to someone, plain and simple, have nothing to do with them. That’s what I’ve done with these people, because I can’t be nice to them, but I refuse to waste my valuable energy on them being nasty and cruel. 
They can do what they want amongst themselves, I don’t even have the patience to care any more.   

Okay, so there’s been a few posts on the whole “rape joke” topic recently, and I thought I’d just get my tuppence worth in there too. Freedom of speech and all that jazz, and own opinion? 

But  yeah, without coming across with the attitude “Rape is a serious subject man! How could you be so cruel and insensitive?!” I’d like to speak about this as a person. A light hearted person, and a girl most of all. But yeah, to begin with it is a really sensitive topic, and not just for girls and women. It does happen to men too, and I won’t deny that. It happens in all types of relationships and encounters; straight men and women, woman and man, gay, lesbian, and I don’t know about A-sexual, but everyone has their own kick, it may or may not have happened, I personally don’t know. 

All these feminists shouting and crying over rape jokes: it doesn’t just happen to us females, ladies! So please, stop getting everyone’s Long-Johns so knotted just to try make a raw subject even more sensitive.

Personally, I don’t laugh at rape jokes. No matter how it’s put across, what sex it’s on, who tells it, I won’t laugh. The word has a filthy meaning to me. Most people probably wouldn’t be able to recognise an act of rape, and it goes unreported, just because it appears different in their eyes. Not the guys (I’ll get started on that in a second…).  Yeah, because they were drunk, the other person was drunk, or be it they just didn’t push them off while the act took place, they see it as their fault and don’t want to cause a fuss. Which is really upsetting in my eyes. Why is it a girl/guy/potato (‘cause potatoes are A-sexual, bad joke, but I don’t want to be too naggy) endures acts like these, knows that they were wrong done by, but still sees it as their fault? One point I’ll get to, but sometimes  they are actually too overcome by shock as to what is actually going on that they can’t summon up the will power to scream, to kick, to shout, to cry out for help. Sometimes they’re just too scared what other people will label them as: a rape victim. Yeah, something similar to a guys filthy wanking rag (pardon my French, but sometimes reality is what is called for). Sometimes they would rather label it as something they can live with: just forced sex, something they didn’t want to happen, it happened anyway. 

 The point I read in the rant against sex jokes was quite clear: By telling rape jokes among other men can insinuate to them that the subject of rape is fine, people do it all the time. Which, in all fairness, okay, people don’t do it all the time, but some weirdo’s minds actually work like that. They can justify things to themselves in ways that are so obscure and unrealistic I don’t even want to comprehend them. But what about those normal guys laughing at the joke..? How about them? Ever think about their views on forced sex?
 Sometimes they actually don’t understand the word no, especially when a girl is saying it. They need the physical reaction of it, but like I said, sometimes some girls are so scared and in shock of what is happening to them that they don’t react, they just clam up and pipe down. Some guys see it as “she didn’t struggle, she didn’t scream, she didn’t shout when I kept on at her, that makes it fine, right?” But no, it’s not alright. For anyone, not just girls. Guys and strawberries too (okay, I’m going back on the A-sexual thing here…). 

A lot of people wouldn’t recognise it as a hideous act themselves when it involves them, because just the word “rape” puts a label on them that makes them feel like a filthy piece of used flesh. By desensitising it to themselves, they can live with the thought of what happened to them at least. I bet there’s people you know that you wouldn’t even think of as being a victim of rape or sexual abuse, just because they’ve managed to cover it up so well for themselves, because it is such a sensitive and painful topic. 
Instead of just thinking of the word rape as being a violation of someone’s personal space, and trying to put light heartedness on a subject that is seen as a “taboo,” why not take into consideration those who have convinced themselves that it is actually their fault? The guys who don’t look at it from a  realistic perspective, and understand that what ever word gets put on it, it still comes under the same category, and what they should have done to them? The ones who are suffering in silence because they feel so dirty and used they can’t talk about it?

By telling jokes, you might try to make light of such a raw topic, but for those people I just mentioned, the ones who really do need help, support, guidance and the ones who need punishment, ridicule and labelled as monsters, different messages and signals go out to them.

Recently I read something that was so true, and something I’ve actually applied to my daily part of life:
Society teaches “don’t get raped” instead of “don’t rape.” 
Which is true, and this is why girls start blaming themselves. “I shouldn’t have let him do it, I should have pushed him off, why didn’t I scream for help?” And it’s true, no longer is it seen as the person who preformed this horrendous act as the monster, but the girl who went out in a short skirt as seeking that sort of attention. People need to realise, some girls may dress up like that because they enjoy the attention it gets them, but others do just love the way the clothes look on them, and what is so wrong with that? I thought we had grown since the dark ages where women must cover their calves and ankles? It is NEVER the victim’s fault, that is why they are a victim. They NEVER ask for it. And NEVER would I believe that someone would be blamed by others for such an act preformed on them.

Don’t laugh, the jokes aren’t funny when you take into consideration that happened to someone, most likely someone you know, and their lives have been torn up because of that, but they won’t say.

I don’t want to preach to the choir personally, but if it gets taken that way, no bother, but time and time again I keep seeing vulgar images (in fact, I don’t think vulgar even comes close to this) of people abusing animals.

Coming up more often are not just pictures of the aftermath of the abuse by these monstrous beings, but them actually partaking in these grotesque actions.
I don’t understand, but nor do I want to understand, why they insist on not only carrying out these actions, but publicly posting them for all to see. Don’t they understand what they are doing is wrong and inhumane? The fact that they smile with such pleasure is spine chilling, so I don’t wish to answer that one myself. 
My stomach has turned-over something awful this morning. After seeing an image of a man grabbing a cat by the neck, skinning it while alive and concious, then showing the cat afterwards, has reduced me to tears on more than one occasion, but I’m lucky enough to have a tough stomach. But mercy doesn’t even come close to what the poor little mite deserves.
The justice system across the world is screwed up when it comes to animal protection. Why people like this are able to just buy animals at the open of a wallet is beyond me; should there not be regulations as to who can buy a pet, as the same with livestock? If you get caught abusing animals, you get fined, and perhaps banned for a little while, a few years at most, and I am probably repeating myself from an earlier post by saying: they are only banned, it does not stop them going and buying more animals to abuse, they’ll only be taken off them if they get caught.

 I could never bring myself to inflict unnecessary pain and suffering onto any animal. I feel horrid inside for trying to clean the dog’s paw when it gets cut outside, and the cleaning of the wound hurts him. For someone to not only go out of their way to hurt a trapped, vulnerable little animal is beyond my comprehension, but to then display it online for everybody to see just takes the biscuit.
I don’t want to bury my head in the sand. I know this sort of stuff goes on every day, and it’s heartbreaking to think what these poor souls are living through, probably hoping that one day someone will find them, a kind hearted human perhaps to grace them with mercy and take them out of this hell.
But we all know all too well that for some, mercy finds them too late; emaciated, beaten, abandoned, skinned, kicked in the skull, burned alive is the truth of what these animals are going through every day, and for some it is their death sentence. 

I, for one, think it’s about time that something be properly done about the people who do these sort of things to animals. I don’t mean “give them a prison sentence! Hang them at the gallows!” (though, it would serve them right. Why have certain rules for assaulting another human, and not for setting a dog alight?) But I believe that there should be some paper work at least filled out any time someone decides to buy a pet, to at least prove to the shop or sellers that they are serious about owning and caring for this animal. Records should be kept on how many animals a person owns, and checks made by animal care authorities to ensure the well being of the animal(s). 

I wish I knew where to go to about kicking a fuss up about this, but I really am tired of knowing that people, especially the ones posting photos of their motives, are not only carrying out these actions, but getting away with it too. 

For the poor kitten who’s name I do not know, I hope that at least some mercy be blessed upon you, in either the form of your saviour, or your passing over the rainbow bridge. May you know some peace and kindness furry little angel. And to the incongruous beast who carried out the callous unrelenting cruelty towards the cat: I hope Facebook finds a way to report you and your actions to the Argentinian police, and justice be made for that poor cat. Any injustice or unforgiving act towards you is the least you deserve.

“It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied together into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” - Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

If anyone can read that without saying or at least acknowledging that they have experienced that first hand themselves, then they are either stupid, ignorant, or both. Every action has a consequence, even the little things people do to keep themselves alive, it all has an effect, some of them greater or less significant than others. Let me ask some rhetorical questions, and see if you can answer them for yourself:
What did you put on this morning when you got up? Where did it come from? Who made it? Where did they get the raw materials to make it? How did the raw materials come to be in their place of work?
And that’s you just got dressed! How about breakfast? What did you have to eat? Cereal? Toast? Bacon? Sausage? Egg? Where did all these things come from? How did they get to your house? In a plastic bag? I think not, and you know that too deep down.
If people would strip back their own ignorance to how things come about of the supermarkets shelves and sat up and paid attention, maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in with this economy. I’m not saying “grab you shovels boys and girls! We’re gonna grow ourselves a better future!” but if people actually took it on board how much work has to go in to getting them their plate of chips, or even just the clothes on their backs, maybe we wouldn’t be so willing to throw things away as soon as they get a tear in them, or as soon as they were too full to eat anymore.

I won’t be the person to go “back in the day you would’ve been made to keep that for your breakfast the next day,” but it is true. Why be so willing to throw something away when we were all told when we were little “there are people who are dying because they don’t have any food, and you’re just throwing it away?” I’m no angel, I used to tell my mum all the time “why don’t you send this to them then?” knowing fine well what my answer would be, she couldn’t, but I just hated being reminded that I was more fortunate than a lot of people in the world. I bet the majority of households spend more money on food they throw out (whether it be out of date, the night before left overs, a plate of chips or salad) than what they donate to charity. That’s going a bit off subject, but still, the point remains the same: everything we do has a consequence, whether it be for the good or the bad. 

Food plays a major part in everyone’s life, of course, we need it to survive! But how many people really think as to where their food has came from? Wheat, for your bread, your cereal, it has to come from somewhere, right? It grows, obviously, but it has to be fertilised, it has to be kept from insects and blight and things like that which could potentially not only kill the crop, but destroy the farmer’s lively-hood. But surely doing these things have no effect, right? Of course they do! Different pH levels of the soil can have serious affects on the surrounding habitats, especially rivers. Fish, amphibians, surrounding wildlife can die because the water source they use has had it’s natural balance disrupted. And then that leads onto the bird life who feed on the fish, small rodents, having an issue caused in their lives and natural cycle. And this is only wheat, never mind all the many other things we need to “survive!” Whether you want acknowledge it or not, everything you do, even these tiny little things, have an indirect affect on so many other things. 

Ignorance is what has led us into this mess the country is in just now: “Put it away just now, ignore it ‘till later, deal with it when it really matters.” That sort of attitude certainly has an effect, and look who has to suffer for it now. Whether people wish to acknowledge everything in their lives has an affect on someone or something is up to them. I’d would shake the hand of anyone who would do that, without hesitation, and if they choose to take action on it, is up to them.
The point I’m making is: unless we realise that everything that takes place in our lives has some impact on someone or something else’s life, we are going to continue to see the world go into poverty and become a dried up waste land. We are destroying so many resources, and for what? Cheap t-shirts at £1 per pop? Or food we are more than happy to throw away without a second thought? Moderation, conserving resources and supplies would be the only way forward, but by the sounds of things, people have heard that until they’re blue in the face, and would rather go back to ignoring what’s going on. 

This year, I’m going to try be as self sustainable and resourceful as I possibly can, not because it looks good, but because it’s the right thing to do, and I’m tired of seeing these ostrich people with their heads in the sand looking like utter ninnies.  

Keeping a pet is a privilege, not a right.

People ought to be honoured when their pet chooses to come home to them, instead of running off in the search for something better. But they don’t, most of the time, because all they have ever known is the house they live in, and think that this is what life ought to be like.

Well, I would just like to make a statement here; why is it I keep reading stories about animals beaten to within an inch of their life, or starved to the point where they are too weak to even eat, or abandoned outside in the freezing cold, when, if given the chance, these very same animals would run to their owners, tails wagging and hearts open, forgiving them for what they’ve done?  It’s nothing short of complete raw cruelty on people like that’s behalves. 

I am disgusted when I read these things, and no, before suggesting “Well, don’t read them then,” I won’t close my eyes, shut my ears off and zip my mouth shut while these monsters are allowed to walk free and treat those with no voice like they are nothing more than a bag of filthy rags. They do feel pain, they understand neglect, they do know fear, and God help any of them that have had to go through that.

I will not lie, pets can be infuriating sometimes. The dog running away while out nearly getting himself run over, the cats tearing up the furniture, finding that one of them has defecated on the floor less than a foot away from the litter box and an open door to the outside… But, in saying that, I would never lift my hand to them, or deprive them of essential living requirements,  and especially not leave them outside in the hope someone else will take them in or even worse, die.

Animals can be traumatised just as much as people can. Two perfect examples: Mum’s friend had a big dog who she took in after it being left outside its family’s house. The dog would get very aggressive and try to attack puppies, and my mum was pretty shocked at this. She asked her friend why he did this, to hear that he had been thrown out of the house because a puppy got brought in, and he was left outside, no longer being “the favourite.” And another example, African Grey parrot called Tyler (gorgeous big boy, but vicious). He no longer trusts humans and attacks them because he has been passed between so many people who didn’t want him, thrown out, neglected, all the rest of it, so now he only trusts his female bird and that’s it. 

Animals can’t speak, but if someone were to do the very same things to a child, where would they end up? Prison? An asylum? Most likely, but what happens in the majority of the cases of these unfortunate animals? A time period of being banned from keeping animals, and a fine… and just because they have been banned from keeping them doesn’t mean they can’t go out and buy pets and do they same thing again. They only get imprisoned if they get caught after that, which is sick. 

I still can’t get my head around the fact people could do these things to any creature. In fact, here’s a joke to lighten it up, but still the point remains the same:
“If you locked either your girlfriend or your dog into the boot of your car, left them there for hours, which one would come out and greet you by kissing your face?” 
A bit nice to think of that, but it’s true. Pets get left in the house all day, waiting for you to return, and they get so excited when you do, to greet you with loving hearts, lots of purrs, and maybe the occasional “face lick.” If you were to do that to a person, they would be livid with you! Why anyone would see any appeal in coming home to attack the very same animal that holds so much love for their owner, I can never understand, and I wouldn’t want to.

The point still stand the same “Dogs are not just for Christmas” or which ever pet you want to put in there, the list is endless now with reptiles, pigs, and miniature “exotic” creatures. They don’t ask for much, love, food, warmth and a soft place to rest their head. Give them what they deserve, and they will give in return all their love, because their owners and family are their whole world.

So, I’ll go take the big pooch out for a walk now. He looks like he’s ready to pee himself with excitement at the idea of “fun time!” That’s how I know he appreciates me and what I do for him in return :)