ponies and other things

So I got to ride Minnie the Crazy Mare again today. She was a good girl and only did one uncontrolled crazy thing (not standing still to be mounted, and it took a couple of tries to get her positioned right at goddessfarmer's picnic table cum mounting block. She was minorly fussy about being bridled but this time the stall guard was up so she couldn't go anywhere, and I did give her a shove when she was being cranky. Part of the reason she doesn't like being bridled is that she needs to wear a standing martingale (a leather strip going from underneath the noseband of the bridle to the girth) or she tries to bop her rider in the nose by tossing her head.

We had a good, short ride as I am still a bit sore from Monday, and I suspect that Minnie was still tired, too. I still need a lot of practice (and lessons) but things are going well. Minnie is one of those horses who pays attention to *everything*. She has to check everything out; she hasn't spooked on me, but I can tell when she's thinking that something might be scary enough to spook over.

We found Trump's lost shoe on one of the trails; it was interestingly torqued, as if it had caught on something, and it's very good that it came off his hoof when it did.

I think Minnie's getting to know me, and knowing that if I show up she and Trumpie get to go out. Apparently it's a good thing; I didn't expect to fall into a free riding arrangement, but goddessfarmer, her mother (who actually owns Minnie but hardly ever rides her), and her daughter (who'd been assigned to exercise Minnie but thinks she's boring) are all happy that I'm riding her.

Odd note not related to ponies: sports bras seem to have "reverse vanity sizing" just like juniors clothing does. I have *never* needed a D-cup bra before! eep. (In my head, I am smaller/thinner than in reality and still think of myself as fairly flat chested.)

Gay men as the new demons?

I was listening to the radio today (NPR) and there was a guest on who maintains that the Evangelical Right needs *someone* to demonize. For a long time, it was the G-dless Communists (who, after all, did have their finger on the button, just like the Americans did... I think there were good reasons to be terrified of them.) There was a parallel strand of Xtian thinking that held up women as the source of evil (e.g. Jezebel) but in response to the feminist movement, bashing women as whores and temptresses has become impossible in the modern-day Evangelical church. Even conservative, non-feminist women won't put up with it these days.

So that leaves us with the "predatory homosexual male" as the source of evil. Quite literally, there are Evangelicals who believe that an ordinary man walking down the street can have "demons" put into him by homosexual men, and these demons will cause him to have homosexual desire. (Apparently one of the pastors who's resigned over gay affairs recently is blaming demons for his failing...) The Evangelical movement knew what happened when expanding womens' civil rights meant that they could no longer demonize women, and so they are loathe to allow homosexuals civil rights, because then they'd have to find someone else to bash. (Illegal immigrants would be a good target, but they are almost all Xtian...)

Note that Evangelicals hardly ever talk about lesbians as cruelly as they talk about gay men. It's all about anal sex and being scared that some "straight" men might find they like it more than they like "mainstream" sex.