Wednesday, December 16, 2009
A raging feminist
I don't know if I've told you this, but Salon's Broadsheet is one of my favorite blogs to follow, especially stuff by Kate Harding, who can be vicious in her coverage of sexists around the world. This story from her posted last night took me a few reads to get through, there was so much in there.
First of all, CW and I had a discussion about someone getting fined for having sex in a war zone, specifically. He was thinking the fine was actually for her being pregnant while at war - that would be rendering herself unfit for duty; unable to complete her job. That would be like a man getting drunk and falling down some night and breaking his leg or something - unfit for duty. I'm not 100% on this, my understanding was that she was fined EXPLICITLY for having sex. Then I see that there is, or was, a ban on sex in Iraq.
Seriously? How stupid is that?
Secondly, and this is her main point, why can't federal employees have access to a a legal medical procedure through their health plan? Because some people don't think abortion is a medical procedure. I was one of them. I thought it was murder. But in the last year or so, I've absolutely changed my mind.
The reason is biology. Mammals abort their young when their isn't enough food or something (or for lots of other reasons).
You know what this is? Humans thinking they are different from animals. I mean, we are right, We've got cities and technology, duh. But all that has come up in just the last few hundred years. And underneath the cell phones and wireless Internet, we're animals.
Also, CW and I had a few pregnancy scares in college. And by scares I mean he was in one stall int he women's bathroom in my dorm and I was in the other peeing on a stick and the two of us had clenched jaws while we waited. We had no money, thousands of dollars of debt, and no college degrees to get a job with. I was leaving to spend four months in Ireland. When you find yourself in that position, all of sudden abortion as murder becomes much less black and white.
That's why it's not unfeasible for me to see that when a woman finds herself pregnant and, for some reason or another, cannot support a baby, aborting that offspring is a reasonable and appropriate response.
But no. Some people have decided it's not. So a significant population of women in this country don't have access to safe abortions (which, I remind you, were deemed legal by the Supreme Court). And if a restriction against federal tax dollars funding abortion passes in the health care reform bill, an even broader population of women, middle-class women who opt into the government option like the feds want them to, won't be able to get a legal medical procedure if they want it.
First of all, CW and I had a discussion about someone getting fined for having sex in a war zone, specifically. He was thinking the fine was actually for her being pregnant while at war - that would be rendering herself unfit for duty; unable to complete her job. That would be like a man getting drunk and falling down some night and breaking his leg or something - unfit for duty. I'm not 100% on this, my understanding was that she was fined EXPLICITLY for having sex. Then I see that there is, or was, a ban on sex in Iraq.
Seriously? How stupid is that?
Secondly, and this is her main point, why can't federal employees have access to a a legal medical procedure through their health plan? Because some people don't think abortion is a medical procedure. I was one of them. I thought it was murder. But in the last year or so, I've absolutely changed my mind.
The reason is biology. Mammals abort their young when their isn't enough food or something (or for lots of other reasons).
More recently, scientists have accrued abundant evidence that "bad" mothering is common in nature and that it is often a centerpiece of the reproductive game plan.
You know what this is? Humans thinking they are different from animals. I mean, we are right, We've got cities and technology, duh. But all that has come up in just the last few hundred years. And underneath the cell phones and wireless Internet, we're animals.
Also, CW and I had a few pregnancy scares in college. And by scares I mean he was in one stall int he women's bathroom in my dorm and I was in the other peeing on a stick and the two of us had clenched jaws while we waited. We had no money, thousands of dollars of debt, and no college degrees to get a job with. I was leaving to spend four months in Ireland. When you find yourself in that position, all of sudden abortion as murder becomes much less black and white.
That's why it's not unfeasible for me to see that when a woman finds herself pregnant and, for some reason or another, cannot support a baby, aborting that offspring is a reasonable and appropriate response.
But no. Some people have decided it's not. So a significant population of women in this country don't have access to safe abortions (which, I remind you, were deemed legal by the Supreme Court). And if a restriction against federal tax dollars funding abortion passes in the health care reform bill, an even broader population of women, middle-class women who opt into the government option like the feds want them to, won't be able to get a legal medical procedure if they want it.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Too Young to be Serious
Snug in my bed this morning, listening leaves skittering outside in the quiet, sunny world, I was thinking about last night. CW's office Christmas party. I had a blast. Not only did I feel like I was part of the cool crowd, the group everyone wanted to be a part of, but I thought I looked great too.
The sun started coming up through the trees, orange and blazing even in the cold. I stretched out and got up to wash my face.
Lesson this week: simple acts like getting up from my desk and walking away or washing my face and looking in the mirror are actually very profound. That's why they are so dramatic in the movies. In real life, you can have an epiphany while you're face is dripping in the mirror.
Slowly, I began thinking I had also been a mess. I started a mental tally of the gin and whiskey and lost count.
Earlier this week, I covered the Hamilton Selectmen's meeting and the Hamilton-Wenham School Committee meeting for the Chronicle (check out my stuff sometime) It was pretty interesting: how to bring more commercial development to the town to diversify the towns tax revenue income and what was going on with the budget at the state level and how the high school was going to avoid probation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges with so little money coming from the state. I was getting pretty fired up about taxation and the role of government. I shook hands with silver-haired men and saw women in expensive looking sweaters and wearing broaches and looking over files of documents. Very Serious Stuff.
I left the school committee meeting just before they officially ended it. I hurried to my car and jumped in, enjoy my spry, strong legs and young and healthy (if dry) hands. I turned up the music and backed out of my parking spot too quickly. I drove much too recklessly for 9pm in Wenham.
But it felt good.
I stopped feeling too bad about last night when I remembered I have my whole life to say no thank you to one more whiskey and coke (or glass of wine, if I ever get that classy) and be a Responsible Adult.
This week, I also spent a lot of time thinking about my job and My Career and what I need to be doing to move forward. More Very Serious Stuff. I even talked to a financial adviser about trading stock.
WHAT.
When I have kids, I'm going to tell them its very very hard to grow up. I don;t think enough people say that. It's very very hard to take responsibility for things and do the right thing and stuff. (Then again, I'm terrified of the process of creating another human inside me so that is still a LONG WAY OFF, if it ever happens. (It'll happen.))
I feel way too young to be serious. I want to be stupid and irresponsible some more. Just a few more years.
The sun started coming up through the trees, orange and blazing even in the cold. I stretched out and got up to wash my face.
Lesson this week: simple acts like getting up from my desk and walking away or washing my face and looking in the mirror are actually very profound. That's why they are so dramatic in the movies. In real life, you can have an epiphany while you're face is dripping in the mirror.
Slowly, I began thinking I had also been a mess. I started a mental tally of the gin and whiskey and lost count.
Earlier this week, I covered the Hamilton Selectmen's meeting and the Hamilton-Wenham School Committee meeting for the Chronicle (check out my stuff sometime) It was pretty interesting: how to bring more commercial development to the town to diversify the towns tax revenue income and what was going on with the budget at the state level and how the high school was going to avoid probation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges with so little money coming from the state. I was getting pretty fired up about taxation and the role of government. I shook hands with silver-haired men and saw women in expensive looking sweaters and wearing broaches and looking over files of documents. Very Serious Stuff.
I left the school committee meeting just before they officially ended it. I hurried to my car and jumped in, enjoy my spry, strong legs and young and healthy (if dry) hands. I turned up the music and backed out of my parking spot too quickly. I drove much too recklessly for 9pm in Wenham.
But it felt good.
I stopped feeling too bad about last night when I remembered I have my whole life to say no thank you to one more whiskey and coke (or glass of wine, if I ever get that classy) and be a Responsible Adult.
This week, I also spent a lot of time thinking about my job and My Career and what I need to be doing to move forward. More Very Serious Stuff. I even talked to a financial adviser about trading stock.
WHAT.
When I have kids, I'm going to tell them its very very hard to grow up. I don;t think enough people say that. It's very very hard to take responsibility for things and do the right thing and stuff. (Then again, I'm terrified of the process of creating another human inside me so that is still a LONG WAY OFF, if it ever happens. (It'll happen.))
I feel way too young to be serious. I want to be stupid and irresponsible some more. Just a few more years.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Promised pictures of the PYTHON
This is me at a house party holding Monty, the python from Maine. Our host took Monty home after her uncle couldn't care for her anymore, explaining that, of her family, herself and her 18 year old cousin were the only ones interested in taking care of a snake.
Make that me and CW. It wasn't long after this photo was taken I demand he buy a python, to which he replied abso-fucking-lutely.
The next day, I slightly regretted that decision since, if i need to choose between a cat and a python, I think I'd want a kitty.
(Our host also had an adorable black and white cat with medium length fur that I wanted to take home with me, but she was very shy and preferred her perch on the window seat. We left that party still madly in love with our darling Maddie, but crazy about getting some more animals.)
Here's CW holding Monty. After about half the party went to bed, he and I stayed up watching Mythbusters. He held her while our host cleaned up in the kitchen. Yeah, he's an expert snake-sitter.Thanks to our buddy SW for the photos (via his Blackberry)!
What it takes to get paid $90k/yr
- Not knowing how to spell camaraderie, or, at the very least, not being able to type it into Google and FIGURE IT OUT BY YOURSELF. You know, like they taught you in grade school to look it up. Any fourth grader could get paid 90k per year.
- Not knowing that when making a plural word, like nurses, possessive, you add an apostrophe after the word and don't add another s. So it looks like nurses'.
I mean, I'm not a whiz at grammar by any means (without the spell check feature in Firefox this blog would be a mess), but SERIOUSLY. Or as my friend AG likes to say, for fucking real?
Did I mention that I work at a publishing company? As in, the person I'm describing is an EDITOR?
- Throwing a temper tantrum because you can't figure out how to turn off the comments in Word's Track Changes mode. Or figure out how to just get through making changes to a document using the comments because, you know, that probably will take you 20 more minutes than if the document didn't have comments. And by temper tantrum, I mean screaming, BANGING ON YOUR DESK, and more screaming. And then bitching out the client who sent the document on the phone. Excellent customer service. Defiantely worth $90k a year.
Did I mention $90k? As in THREE TIMES what I make?
Clearly I need to do more swearing, bang more stuff, and be more stupid.
- Not knowing that when making a plural word, like nurses, possessive, you add an apostrophe after the word and don't add another s. So it looks like nurses'.
I mean, I'm not a whiz at grammar by any means (without the spell check feature in Firefox this blog would be a mess), but SERIOUSLY. Or as my friend AG likes to say, for fucking real?
Did I mention that I work at a publishing company? As in, the person I'm describing is an EDITOR?
- Throwing a temper tantrum because you can't figure out how to turn off the comments in Word's Track Changes mode. Or figure out how to just get through making changes to a document using the comments because, you know, that probably will take you 20 more minutes than if the document didn't have comments. And by temper tantrum, I mean screaming, BANGING ON YOUR DESK, and more screaming. And then bitching out the client who sent the document on the phone. Excellent customer service. Defiantely worth $90k a year.
Did I mention $90k? As in THREE TIMES what I make?
Clearly I need to do more swearing, bang more stuff, and be more stupid.
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