My Reaction to Global Terrorism

I was reeling from Friday's attack on Paris. When I saw it on Dateline, I thought, "How could I have not heard about this on Social Media?" I hadn't quite connected that it was so new that it hadn't made it to Social Media when I was there (which was three or four hours before Dateline aired). Needless to say, when I got back on, my feed was covered with images of the Eiffel Tower Peace Sign and people's avatars in French Flag colors.
I love and support all of you for standing with France and don't want to diminish that by putting what I'm feeling into words.
What I'm feeling is that terrorism is a global problem. It harms everyone. It harmed the victims of the Paris attacks. It harmed Shiites in Baghdad and a family in Mount Hebron, the West Bank that same day. It has claimed victims in Lebanon, Cameroon, Chad, and, yes, Iraq; Egypt, Israel and Somalia have also been hit this month alone. Every lover of history and of art was hurt when ISIS / ISIL was destroying Mesopotamian Antiquities that can never be replaced.
In the US and throughout the world, we feel the impact of Terror every day, it seems. Terror is a global problem that hurts everyone. It even harms the terrorists, although they're too stubborn/hate-filled/fanatical to see what living with that constant level of hate is doing to them.
So, to recognize that terror is a global problem, I created the following images of the flags of the world, to try to show that we're all connected. My thanks to the US CIA (cia.gov) for providing images of the flags to the Public Domain.

The first is cropped close to the flags image, the second is in a square space.

I chose a gray background simply because none of the flags had a that gray in them, at least, not on the edges (and purple didn't seem appropriate for the statement).
I'm declaring these images to be in the Public Domain as well. I'm pretty sure that's all it takes. If you want to use one for any purpose, go ahead. But you should probably credit the CIA as the source of the flags.

Addendum: The squared image with black bands on top and bottom, symbolizes mourning over every loss of life, every human driven from his or her home, every priceless -- or not so priceless -- item destroyed by the intolerant.

Ball Inspection

Is it too late for this one?

Gender Privilege isn't always what it's cracked up to be

Okay, let's get real. I am not going to sit here and pretend that men don't have it all over women in the United States (I don't live in other countries, so I'm not addressing their gender-privilege issues; I am, however, acknowledging that the Internet is a global thing). We do. We get better pay (statistically, if not in my personal recent experience). We are thought more highly of when we're in a position of power. Hell, our reputations are improved by the accusation that we've had sex. In a lot of ways, being a man is pretty awesome (sorry, ladies).

But I recently stumbled across a link on Facebook to this article: Proof of Male Privilege that lists various proofs of, well, male privilege, and I was taken a little aback by #4: that men can show skin. Oh, sure, he's talking about a man's ability to go home, throw on a pair of shorts, strip off his shirt, and go out for a jog, letting his nipples breath the fresh air.

My thoughts, however, immediately went to the workplace. Let's look for a moment at what's considered "Professional Dress" for men:

Please note: this is from an Internet Search for "professional dress". My professions have generally allowed jeans and a polo shirt, but this is more the standard for Professional Dress.
Now, let's look at professional dress for women:

 Do you see what I see?

Like I said, I don't want to pretend that men don't live in a near-constant state of privilege around here, but there is one place where women have a distinct advantage, and that is dress. Not only can any of the women above go strolling through the city on a June day and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine on their arms and legs -- and in some cases, parts of their cleavage (oh, the poor man on the far right who has to run out in a heat wave in that three-piece monstrosity ;) ). but look what else women have.
Women have COLOR! Fuscia, ivory, aqua (not pictured), lavendar (np). And, of course, they can wear gray if they so desire. Men? Well, sure we have color choices. We can wear slate gray. Or we can wear charcoal gray. Or we can really get wild and crazy and go for NAVY! Nope, if a man wants color, to express his individuality, well, I suppose he has the tie.

I'd move on to beach wear, but I'm pretty sure that *is* a case of male privilege. With the teeny tiny beach wear I see available for women, it just screams that women are required to have large chests and itty-bitty waists, whereas men get to just take their shirts off. It was clearly designed by heterosexual males so they could ogle women, just like board shorts for men were designed so men wouldn't have to be accosted by each others' more private parts.

Anyway, before you go off in a rage about how I'm ignoring the very real ways that women are still subjugated, let me say again what I said at the beginning: Male Privilege definitely exists. The article I linked to at the beginning makes some real points about how advantaged we are. It's just that to say "We can show skin and they can't" is a little ... short-sighted. Also, please don't take me overly seriously here.