I suck lately

I have not been blogging here and it's totally lame.

But I did blog here.

It's about men who work as clinic escorts.

So there's that

*I know, it's still uncool*

In my neck of the woods

I often read blogs and find out about some amazing event or gathering on the East/West Coast. Now there's a feminist, pro-choice event in my neck of the woods.

WHOO HOO!

So, if you are near Fargo, stop by to hear Jennifer Baumgardner, an amazing writer and filmmaker. Catch her at Zandbroz bookstore in downtown Fargo.



This is the new book she is discussing. Looks like fun!

Happy be-lated Independence Day!

Well I'm a little late on this but I wanted to say Happy 4th of July and I hope you all had a good one.

I was lucky that I could spend the holiday with my family. Even though it meant driving 18 hours (round trip) and begging my mother for gas money. Actually, I didn't have to beg too much, she really wanted me to make it -- but I think I may be recruited to help clean the house one of these days. Small price to pay I suppose.

Hanging out with cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandma was a blast. Politics is not on the menu when we get together as a family. Some are conservative Christians and have Focus on the Family magazine in their bathroom (eesh) and others are progressive types. But the nice thing is we can put that aside and enjoy each other's company. I laughed so hard and ate so much good food that it could be criminal.

We also played one disastrous volleyball game where Sexy Boyfriend face planted, my uncle pulled a leg muscle, my cousin cut herself (with her own fingernails) and was bleeding and I took a volleyball in the face AND stepped in dog poop.

NO ONE in our family is coordinated (or lucky) apparently.

I'm late on this but I wanted to share the post I wrote for Planned Parenthood called Happy 4th of July! Keep supporting Reproductive Rights!

I hope whatever you were up to on the 4th of July, you were in good company.

The Pro-Choice President

I blog over at plannedparenthoodadvocate.com and consequently am privy to some cool news. For example, Planned Parenthood has created these "widgets" for facebook, myspace, blogs etc (example above). They feature a running countdown to the next pro-choice president. I have one up here right under Alice, my pet penguin (feel free to feed her fish).

Side note: I had to think awhile about posting this widget. I realize that Obama claiming the nomination for Democratic candidate was not happy news for everyone. It has caused major rifts in the progressive community. Personally, this primary season left me feeling squashed and pained as well. Several other bloggers have said it better than I could. And certainly with such difficult times immediately behind us, it's hard to feel "rah rah" at the current moment.

However, knowing what I know about John McCain, I feel I must do everything I can to see he is defeated in 2008.

John McCain has consistently voted against women. He doesn't believe women deserve equal pay much less control of their bodies. He's voted against affordable birth control and medically accurate sex ed. He proudly states that he wants Roe v. Wade overturned. I'd say he's a bigger threat to women's lives that George W. Bush. And that is pretty damn scary.

So if a pro-choice President means as much to you as it does to me, and you support Obama for '08, feel free to head to this site to download a widget to add to your internet space in support for pro-choice policies back in the White House.

Thanks to Planned Parenthood for working to put choice back in Washington!

Vintage Pro-choice

Click to read the magazine

Blogging for Choice!

Today is the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and I am blogging for choice. More specifically, WHY would you be pro-choice?

To see the merits of being pro-choice, one only need look at a typical "pro-life" argument.

Unfortunately, I saw a classic example this morning when I opened my community newspaper. The article was by Cal Thomas and it was called, "Awful Cost of Roe Decision."

Reading this article will tell you all you need to about "pro-life" individuals.

Roe took the question of endowment of life by "our Creator" and placed it in the hands of individuals...Each becomes her and his own god; each becomes a taker of life, rather than a giver, inverting the creation model into one of destruction and transforming the pregnant woman from life-giver to life-taker.

Well yikes.

First of all, take notice because this is really the first and LAST time Thomas feigns any interest in talking about women. As many "pro-lifers" do, he'll ignore them in this argument... notice he reference them as "pregnant," or "life giver." He never talks about a woman as a human being or an individual -- you'd think in this little universe, women didn't EXIST until they were impregnated.

Secondly, HUGE, LOUD ALARM bells should go off when people tell you what God wants (as if they have the inside scoop). Notice that this man's God seems to have very little interest in women's rights-- convenient, yes?

I thought God gave us free will? Do we call it "playing God" when we go to war and kill the enemy? No, we call it a necessary choice made for the good of all. And we trust our leaders to make those tough decisions because "they know best" (ugh, 'nother can of worms). But heaven forbid we trust a woman to make a decision about ONE potential life that frankly, can't become a life without her anyway.

Think about it!!

If I was dying of kidney failure, and Cal Thomas was my perfect donor match, would he be required by law to donate a kidney to preserve my life? No, absolutely not. No one would expect him to give of his body to sustain me. That is infringement on his legal rights. When it's his kidney, it's none of my business, but when it's my uterus, suddenly he has a say!?

Thomas goes on to say (emphasis mine):

Abortion on demand cannot be seen in isolation from social breakdown. In 1973, near the end of the Vietnam War and the approaching resignation of President Nixon two years later, the focus on self, pleasure and convenience by Baby Boomers was at its height. Marriages easily dissolved as "no fault" divorce laws were passed; cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births were on the rise; "unwanted babies" (who were labeled "products of conception" to make it easier to deny the obvious) became an impediment to the pursuit of pleasure and material gain.

Abortion was not a cause, but a reflection of our decadence and deviancy.

Damn. That blames a lot of stuff on abortion, doesn't it? But sad to say, blaming the women-folk/feminism/abortion is nothing new. In fact, if you look up Thomas' article online (you can find it at Townhall.com -'nough said) the unedited version blames abortion for our current immigration problem. Thomas claims we'd have more workers if we just quit aborting them! In fact, Washington pro-war mouthpieces have decried abortion as the reason we're losing in Iraq!! I think the argument went something like this: "Quit aborting our canon fodder, you hussies!"

But let's be honest. You can't really blame abortion for everything. Abortion wasn't legalized until '73 and a lot of bad shit went down before then... World Wars, terrible depression etc etc. Who do we blame for that? And go back even further, I mean holy crap look at the dark ages! Or early history of this country with constant instability, terrible disease, we even burned our own at the stake-- don't recall Planned Parenthood being on every corner back then, do you?

I CAN buy that legal abortion may have caused some divorces. Women's right (among them the right to choose abortion) meant that women began realizing they didn't have to stay unhappily married, they didn't have to birth children and settle down... they could make their life their own, go to school, pursue a career, take a mate, have sex without fear and without marriage! Ah yes, the end of civilization as we know it....

Thomas' idea of "civilization" is that HE gets to tell YOU when to have sex and for what purpose. "You will be married and you will be trying for babies!"

Being pro-choice is pro-family. I can bet you just as many marriages were saved by Roe as were "destroyed." With Roe and ever-expanding birth control access, families could control number and spacing of children which meant dad didn't have to work himself to death providing for a herd and mom had options rather than pregnancy after exhausting pregnancy.

"Pro-lifers" like to talk about abortion on demand or "abortion used as birth control." I'd like to know WHERE! I've worked at an abortion clinic and I can tell you there are ZERO women who see this as a "birth control" method. Birth control (ideally) is fast, easy, cheap & painless. Abortion, frankly is none of these. It's invasive, expensive, hard to schedule --the VAST majority of women drive at LEAST 1 hour to reach a doctor! There's also the complex decision to end a pregnancy... not to mention the social stigma on women who choose to abort.

People like Thomas want to pretend that women are silly little children who need protecting from their small, underdeveloped minds. You see, in Thomas' world, women are PREY for the bad, scary abortion providers.

Politicians and judges could help bury Roe by requiring that pregnant women receive complete information about the nature of the life within them, including being required to view sonograms before electing abortion.

This notion of women as completely oblivious to what's inside their own uterus-- it's just insulting, frankly. When I worked at the women's clinic, plenty of women looked at that sonogram, some even asked for a picture to take home. You see, it's not that women don't understand the depth of this decision. They do, they just don't feel the need to share it with their politician. You see, they have this crazy notion that they don't have to discuss it with you, Mr. Thomas-- they want it between their doctor and maybe THEIR God.

This whole issue is very complex and the answer does NOT lie in restricting access. That just means women will die.

The answer to fewer abortions is in making birth control better, more available and most importantly -- cheaper! It means teaching sex ed that doesn't lie or deceive or tell you "just don't do it."

Pro-choice is about human rights.

It's about giving power to women

Pro-choice is respecting women and their right to bodily autonomy.

Pro-choice is every child a planned, wanted child.

It's not hate and control...


PRO-CHOICE IS ABOUT TRUSTING WOMEN: YOUR MOTHER, DAUGHTER, SISTER, WIFE, AUNT, GRANDMOTHER, FRIEND, PASTOR, DOCTOR, DAY CARE PROVIDER...... TRUST ALL WOMEN.

Happy 35th!

Glenn Beck & Bill Donahue tie for IDIOT of the year award

My last post was all about the middle school in Maine dispensing birth control for girls. So I'm not going into all the details or why I think it's a good idea. You can just read it.

When it comes to controversial topics involving sex, some things are just 100% predictable. I'm talking romantic-comedies-starring-Drew-Barrymore predictable. First predictable thing: CNN's Glenn Beck will be a total moron and #2 President of the Catholic League will be invited on moron's moronic show to be an even bigger moron. ... one more time for good measure... MORON!

It's no surprise that people are talking about girls getting birth control and it's definitely no surprise that Bill Donahue would get in on the action-- he revels the opportunity to bash feminism, contraception and talk about "saving women from themselves." Here's some of the gems from the conversation between Beck and Donahue:

Beck: Now, right now it is illegal in Maine for kids under the age of 14 to have sex at all, whether it is consensual or not. Yet you have a local school commission that is not only underhandedly encouraging sex; they`re actually enabling it. "Hey, kids, go break the law."

I understand that there`s disease out there. But we`re talking now about taking the pill. Now we`re saying, "Hey, you go ahead" -- I mean, how easy are we going to make it?

Sex Ed 101, Glen-- The pill isn't about preventing disease, it's about preventing pregnancy! Giving a woman (or girls) a prescription for birth control is not the same as saying "go have sex." It's saying, "if you have sex, and don't want to become pregnant, you need this."

Since 2000, this middle school gave out condoms and Glenn Beck wasn't wetting the bed. Now that we give young girls the option to protect themselves against pregnancy (itself terribly dangerous for an 11-13 year old) NOW-- it's a problem.

Such a problem that we're practically building a copulation room and tearing down the library. Seriously, Beck was on Good Morning America when he said,

Why don`t we -- the library`s outdated. Why don`t we have a copulation room?

What type of rounded logic is that? By giving a sexually active girl options to prevent pregnancy we're forcing sex on her?

The program only gets better because then, Bill Donahue (AKA EVIL INCARNATE) is invited to speak.

DONAHUE: Well, you know, this is the goal of the sexual engineers. It has been for a very long time. This libertine notion of sexuality.

....I would say this. You know, the original feminists -- I`m talking about the ones in the 19th century -- they understood that one of the goals of their movement was to protect innocent women from being preyed upon by irresponsible men."

Really? Feminism was started to protect innocent women from irresponsible men. I thought feminism was about giving women equal opportunity so she wouldn't have to be dependent on men-- irresponsible or not. Feminism meant that women could vote, be assured safety within her marriage, hold property, secure a job to feed herself and have some control if she wanted a divorce but didn't want to lose her kids.

But no, I guess Susan B Anthony just wanted to save women from "irresponsible" men. What kind of bullshit, non-committal word is "irresponsible" anyway, Bill? What irresponsible things were these men doing-- beating their wives? Taking all their money? Raping women? WHAT?

The insanity continues:

Donahue: There`s no question that -- that young men have always been throughout all of history in all societies the most irresponsible segment of society. You know what the message is being sent to young men, and I`m talking about ones who are also over the age of 18.

The message that will be sent to young men is this: they`re fair game. The girl is just off her tricycle. She`s 11 years of age. You can`t even dispense an aspirin to the kid in the school, but you can get them the birth control kit. The boy picks up the message she`s fair game; let`s go get them.

If you want them to exploit girls, this is the way to go.

This is the classic argument against contraception (and frankly it's insulting to women and men). Most often you hear this nonsensical tirade from the Catholic Church. You can't give women the option to prevent pregnancy because if she has that, men will take advantage of her sexually and use her as an object (cause that never happens to women who aren't on the pill).

This asinine argument makes women out to be helpless pawns. Rather than admit that preventing/planning pregnancy gives women power, these pricks twist the argument so that THEY are the only ones looking out for women... poor little woman, she doesn't realize the harm she'll cause to herself.

In Donahue's world, these 11 year old girls would be safe and chaste without the pill, but with it, they'll be preyed upon by boys who just want to use them. Anyone else think that's unreasonable?

Donahue further explains that contraception is really the root of all evil for women and that girls who dare use this method are setting themselves up for a life of terrible sadness.

When these girls become emotionally distraught and when they grow up and they realize that they gave in to young guys and some of the guys not so young, because their own mother had the nerve to go ahead and offer that girl the pill, and the guys in the neighborhood all knew about it and therefore took advantage of her, that`s the real price and the damage that will be done.

I like how this is all the mother's fault-- where is the dad? It's pretty obvious that Donahue blames feminism and contraception for "destroying the lives of your children."

Also-- once you're on the pill, "all the guys on the block will take advantage of you" -- it sure sounds like Donahue is calling contraception the SLUT pill.

If you still have any questions as to Donahue's sanity, guess what he thinks the evil libertines want to do with newborn boys?

You know, these people say that they`re on the side of women? The biggest enemy of women in America today, and particularly young girls, are coming from the sexually libertine sexual engineers who will stop at nothing. And if they had it their way, they would order the doctor to sew a condom onto the infant male on his penis as soon as he`s born. They`re simply out of control.

How is it possible that Glenn Beck and Bill Donahue equate pregnancy prevention with copulation rooms at school, sewing condoms onto infants and getting freaky on a tricycle? It's because the idea that women could avoid consequences of sex (PREGNANCY) scares the shit out of them.

As I stated in my last post, it is awful to think that young girls would have sex. But if we can all agree that we don't want a pregnant 11-year old girl, and we can't FORCE kids to remain chaste (or force their parents to ... parent), then we should help them prevent pregnancy. Yes, the pill won't prevent disease but condoms do and the school has those on hand as well. Imagine that-- equal opportunity protection!

Beck and Donahue give us a world where women and girls are helpless victims incapable of making good choices about sex. Their solution is to give them less options. Raise your hand if you detect circular logic and misogyny!

YES!

I want to marry this woman. For shiz.
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