The Long Hard Road out of Hell

I just concluded a two-hour long interview with a representative from Human Rights Watch about everything that my Unit put me through in Iraq. I'm extremely optimistic about the outcome of this painfully lengthy but very necessary documentation process, it makes things "official" that I'm not just shouting into the abyss with my story. Many survivors of military sexual trauma seem to get the feeling that nobody wants to hear their sob stories, and I admit that for a good long while I had been feeling the exact same way. But NOW, despite feeling residual reverberation from re-telling every horrible little incident & detail, I'm actually feeling pretty good about this.

THIS is the point of no return, I cannot recant or retract my public testimony at this point, and despite all the pain this whole ordeal has caused me I wouldn't want to.

It's entirely possible that things might get harder for me in some ways now, but this needed to happen: Today I stood in the middle of the road directly in the path of the tank that wanted to crush me, I have stepped up the game and I AM WINNING.

I say this a lot, but I'd like to thank each and every person, podcast & project that has given me a platform from which to speak out. 

I have A LOT OF BEERS to buy for people ^_^ 

Well Fuck You, Too.

Yesterday, 45 Senators voted to filibuster the Military Justice Improvement Act. Senator John Boozeman of Arkansas was among them, which comes as a colossal disappointment considering that he e-mailed me PERSONALLY going on about how "committed" he was to "solving this very serious issue."

Okay, Mr Senator, I guess elected officials who (are supposed to) work off of tax-payer money just do whatever the fuck they want, then? Many of you rally up and absolutely worship Servive-Members & Veterans, yet once the polls close and you manage to get re-elected you lot step all over us like we're mere insects.

Don't worry, Mr Boozeman, your party's arrogance will continue to do itself in over then next decade or so and hopefully you'll never again have to suffer the pressures of actually making good on your own words. 

Signed,

JENIFER L CHADBOURNE (A Veteran you {oh you WISH!} bent over a desk yesterday)

I Love/Hate Chick Tracts

I would honestly love to know why some people think leaving these goddamn things all over the place is a good idea, really. If you want to waste your own money buying packages of these tiny pamphlets that most people just wind up either tossing into the bin or using for fire-place kindling, that's your prerogative I guess. All it really seems to accomplish is desecrating and defiling otherwise perfectly good trees but more notably lining Jack Chick's pockets with money he doesn't fucking deserve to have. Even my Christian friends despise Chick and think his material is grossly unoriginal and perverted. 

You hear THAT Chicky? Even your target audience despises your message!

So when I went to the VA in Fayetteville for an appointment last week and found one of these things not-so-cleverly "displayed" atop a PTSD brochure rack, at first I was more than just a bit miffed. I took it with every ORIGINAL intention of just tossing it in the trash where it belongs. No matter what the fucked-up story-line, these things are all fundamentally the same: The same "Turn or Burn" drivel over and over again only wrapped in slightly different packaging with each printing.

But not this time. THIS TIME I decided to do something outside of my usual routine: 

Get settled in for a wee "Bed-Time Story" kids, because this is not only about 20 or so minutes long but also chock-full-o-swearing and most certainly NSFW!

And as long as some unfortunate bastard continues to drop these things at the VA (which is a Federal Building and not technically allowed to endorse or display stuff like this anyway, so really I'm doing EVERYONE a favor, here) there will be more "Bed-Time Stories" to come in the future.

Please, enjoy ^_^