bookish dreamer

based off of secondalto 's post here...

The NY Times article Abortion Proposal Sets Condition on Aid:

The Bush administration wants to require all recipients of aid under federal health programs to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control.

more importantly:

The proposal defines abortion as follows: “any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”  [ emphasis mine ]

and finally,

“The proposed definition of abortion is so broad that it would cover many types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and emergency contraception.” [ emphasis mine ]

Feministing, as usual, has their own unique take on things, and even lovelier graphics, but I also believe they have a point - there seems to be some idea that if it offends somebody those who are offended have to be protected, which isn't quite how I think anit-discrimination laws work.

The full text of the draft memo that's sparked the whole debate [ in PDF form ]

A link to the Department of Health and Human Services' comment form (where you can express your displeasure.)

A link to the Planned Parenthood campaign form to "Stop President Bush's massive sellout of women's healthcare".

And, in my reading on this, I've found this site that has stories of people working in abortion clinics and the anti-choice women they gave abortions to (which makes for really interesting reading).  One of the many stories:

"I've had several cases over the years in which the anti-abortion patient had rationalized in one way or another that her case was the only exception, but the one that really made an impression was the college senior who was the president of her campus Right-to-Life organization, meaning that she had worked very hard in that organization for several years. As I was completing her procedure, I asked what she planned to do about her high office in the RTL organization. Her response was a wide-eyed, 'You're not going to tell them, are you!?' When assured that I was not, she breathed a sigh of relief, explaining how important that position was to her and how she wouldn't want this to interfere with it." (Physician, Texas)

And finally, an absolutely amazing rant by naamah_darling .  She is not at all fair minded, but she's passionate, and tired of all the shit (and by shit I mean the government attitude and the common discourse about women's rights to their own bodies), and I respect that, deeply.

Although this is still in the draft stage, and I completely understand that, I'm saddened, disheartened, and frankly terrified that this kind of thing could even get to the draft stage.

Linky, link, links.  Go visit if you are so inclined.

Texas starts arresting people for being drunk  So when are they going to start arresting dove hunters who are intoxicated?

Is Bush planning on nuking Iran?  Wow, he is nuts.

Picture of a monkey petting a cat.  AWWWWWWW......

50s scare film clip Beware the evil homosexual who tries to seduce you!  They're everywhere!

UCSC Students Against War protest  Look, they  made the evil recruiters leave!  YAY!

Iran joins the nuclear club?   They are getting kind of uppity.  They should at least test one first before they start saying they are in the nuclear club.....

Origins of the "Obey Giant" art movement.  They originally came from They Live with Rowdy Roddy Piper

Also, Free Books from Baen!  Free Science Fiction ebooks - get 'em here.

OH!  The coolest thing EVA (for geeky people like me):  Samuel Delany's Radio Play.  It's all 70's sci-fi with the weird flute music, but still, really amazing to hear one of his short stories dramatized.


[all from gray_ghost except for the last two - 1 from one of the yahoo groups, and one from boing boing]

Check it out: Congress wants to extend Daylight Saving Time

I forgot for a second, but then remembered, the US Congress doesn't actually have the power to make the sun stay up longer. Why on earth would they propose this? Instead why don't the abolish the whole system and just let us have our clocks back? We're not on a farm economy anymore, and people who have farms get up when the sun rises whether it's 8 am or 6 am or 4 am regardless.

I absolutely hate daylight saving time (and the switch back). It makes me cringe and whine and moan, because we don't actually control time. We have no say in how fast the earth rotates, and unless we score some major technology or another moon or something, that's not going to change. So why can't we just give it up already?

Hey y'all. This won't come as a surprise to most of you, but I'm *so* not a supporter of the Iraq War (conservatives, don't stop reading - i think you'll agree with this thing at the bottom too). A friend of mine, who recently had a crisis of conscience -- a moment where she realized she was absolutely against every thing they're supposedly fighting for (and everything it seems obvious they're fighting for) -- called me up and asked me what she should do. Because we know protesting doesn't work. We know writing to our congressional leaders doesn't work. Most of 'em are lone voices in the spiraling mad whirlpool I like to call the downfall of democracy. Talking to friends doesn't help either, because we're all of the same opinion, and it's not like she's changing minds one person at a time.

Since I couldn't actually give her any help on what to do with all that fear and anger her realization caused her, she found something on her own. Some way to positively deal with a situation that is just insane. And here's the way.

Regardless of what we think about the war, there are a bunch of people over there who were ordered to be there, who are trying to do the best they can with what they have. And there's a couple of websites out there that try to support those people, that try to allow them to make individual requests and address individual needs - to help the *people* who are forced to fight a war they may or may not believe in.

If you have a couple of minutes, take a look at this site. It's called Any Soldier.com. Some of the requests are so easy - some soldiers simply haven't heard from home, and are on their own for the first time since high school, and would love to receive a letter. Some would like beef jerky and movies. Some of the female soldiers want things we simply take for granted, like razors and deodorant. It was hard for me not to want to respond to them all. But I know this - I will respond to some. I will take all this frustration at not being able to do *anything* about a situation I hate and try and help some others who need it.

This is what they say about themselves:

Sergeant Brian Horn from LaPlata, Maryland, an Army Infantry Soldier with the 173rd Airborne Brigade was in the Kirkuk area of Iraq when he started the idea of AnySoldier to help care for his soldiers. He agreed to distribute packages, that came to him with "Attn: Any Soldier" in the address, to the soldiers who were not getting mail.
Brian is no longer in Iraq but Any Soldier Inc. continues with your support.

Any Soldier Inc. started in August 2003 as a simple family effort to help the soldiers in one Army unit, thus our name. However, due to overwhelming requests, on 1 January 2004 our effort was expanded to include any member, of any of the Armed Services, in harms way.

ok, now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

"I do not advocate the use of dangerous drugs, wild amounts of alcohol and violence and weirdness - but they've always worked for me." [go here for more if you don't understand]

Goodbye you old bastard.

I'm sure it's unpopular with a large segment of the American populace, but I'm kinda looking at North Korea and smiling in their general direction. OK, before you freak out, no, I don't know much about North Korea, except what's shown up in James Bond films and other random non-educational sources of entertainment. So I'm not really sure exactly what their take on the world is. Ok, I have admittedly vague memories of atrocties and I believe something called the Korean War happened there, but it's all lost in a cloud of playstation and the OC.

The only things I'm mostly sure of is they picked a position and stuck with it today - and even if it does seem like a case of the little daschund trying to pick a fight with the pitbull, they're actually telling the US to go screw itself (well, or telling us we have to deal with them one on one and we can't legislate their nuclear activities).

It doesn't seem like that happens often enough. I mean, why should we be one of the few countries that gets to continue to make our own nuclear bombs? And why should we require that no other countries manufacture them? Double standard? Indeed.

Note: Want to read a little bit more about it? Check out this little summary from Amy's Robot