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Grinning Cat's definitions

snail

(from snail mail)

(v.) to send (a letter, card, or package) via physical mail; to mail or post (a tangible object) using a postal service. Bills and junk mail are perhaps the most common items snailed, but people snail personal letters and items as well.
I snailed my aunt a CD of Richard Clayderman, her favorite pianist.
by Grinning Cat December 27, 2010
mugGet the snailmug.

man box

The rules for "acting like a man"; the mentality, behaviors and restrictions that many men and boys are socialized to conform to. These tenets of the "cult of masculinity" are both symptoms and enablers of Dominator Culture. They can be so pervasive as to be almost invisible; yet they lead men to disrespect, mistreat, and abuse women and each other.

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THE MAN BOX

Demonstrate power/control (especially over women)

Aggression - Dominance - yell - intimidate

Do not cry openly or express emotions (except for anger)

Do not express weakness or fear - "take it"

Don't back down - don't make mistakes

Do not be "like a woman"

Heterosexual

Have lots of sex with women - "conquests"

Do not be "like a gay man"

Tough/Athletic/Competitive/Strength/Courage

Make Decisions - Never ask for help

Women viewed as property/objects (especially sexual objects)
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(Based largely on Tony Porter's TED talk "A Call to Men")
This is the love of my life, my daughter Jay. The world I envision for her -- how do I want men to be acting and behaving? ... I need you working with me and me working with you on how we raise our sons and teach them to be men -- that it's okay to not be dominating, that it's okay to have feelings and emotions, that it's okay to promote equality, that it's okay to have women who are just friends and that's it, that it's okay to be whole, that my liberation as a man is tied to your liberation as a woman.

I remember asking a nine-year-old boy ... "What would life be like for you, if you didn't have to adhere to this man box?" He said to me, "I would be free."
by Grinning Cat March 28, 2013
mugGet the man boxmug.

IRS

"Infernal Revenue Service", how many Americans feel about the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. federal tax collection agency.
Legend has it that IRS employees scrutinize handwritten envelopes containing tax returns, and any addressed to the "Infernal" Revenue Service are flagged for audits.
by Grinning Cat April 18, 2008
mugGet the IRSmug.

monogamy

The custom or condition of having only one mate in an intimate relationship, of being dedicated to a single partner.
Monogamy is a traditional ideal in various societies, yet many people in these societies are not monogamous.

Cheating (being involved with someone else, with secrecy and deception) is a destructive way to be nonmonogamous. On the other hand, swinging and polyamory (types of responsible nonmonogamy based on the knowledge and consent of everyone involved) are viable choices for some people.
by Grinning Cat March 6, 2008
mugGet the monogamymug.

Christmahannukwanzadan

A term that, while an attempt to be inclusive of various winter holidays and "festivals of light", also displays ignorance that Ramadan has no connection with the seasons of the solar year. Ramadan (a month of major religious observances within the Islamic lunar calendar) moves backwards through the solar calendar about eleven days every year.

In some years Ramadan gains visibility as it is coincidentally observed near the winter "holiday season", but it actually keeps cycling through the seasons.
In 2010 Ramadan spanned parts of August and September.
In 2011 Ramadan will fall approximately between August 1 and August 29 or 30.
This demonstrates that "Christmahannukwanzadan" illogically groups Ramadan with winter holidays.
by Grinning Cat December 27, 2010
mugGet the Christmahannukwanzadanmug.

election

The worst system of choosing among candidates for public office -- except for all the others.
"The turnout for the election wasn't even 40% of eligible voters. The winner got a slight majority of that, so four out of five people DIDN'T vote for him. So from that he concludes he has a popular 'mandate'?!"
by Grinning Cat January 5, 2009
mugGet the electionmug.

voting machine

A device that records the choices of voters in an election. It can take several forms:

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1. A mechanical device, where the voter flips small levers next to the candidates' names to indicate their choices, then pulls a big lever to record the votes. Considered very difficult to hack.

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2. A direct-recording electronic (DRE) machine. May print vote totals on paper, but there is no way for a voter to verify that his/her votes were accurately recorded. Unlike mechanical voting machines, DRE machines are extremely vulnerable to fraud and malware that can steal a percentage of votes, reassigning them to the rigged candidate.

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3. An electronic machine that lets the voter make choices, then PRINTS AN ACTUAL FILLED-OUT PAPER BALLOT, which the voter can review and either discard (and start over) or cast. THE PAPER BALLOT IS THE OFFICIAL RECORD OF THE VOTE.

Ballots can be quickly counted by optical scanning technology. (Voters could also choose to fill in a blank ballot by hand.) Importantly, ballots can be RECOUNTED, by hand if necessary.

Counts from the voting machines need not be trusted as anything more than quick estimates or "exit polls". This scheme makes it difficult to commit the large-scale fraud so easy to do invisibly with paperless DRE machines.

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A number of Diebold electronic voting machines have been in the news, first for criminally incompetent software and database design, leaving vote records wide open to undetectable tampering, more recently for vulnerability to "computer virus" style malware that can spread from machine to machine through the data cards used to collect voting data.

Making such electronic voting machines widespread is the perfect way to lay the groundwork for large-scale, invisible voter fraud.

There's plenty of information on this on the Web. A good place to start: the Coalition for Voting Integrity, www.coalitionforvotingintegrity.org .
by Grinning Cat April 18, 2008
mugGet the voting machinemug.

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