What the hell...Health Care Reform

According to the Huffington Post the House passed the Health Care bill at the expense of abortion rights.  I never said federally funded abortions, and I love the idea of a public option.  However, it is my understanding that this anti-abortion amendment added to the bill does not only limit funding for abortions from a public option, but also from all private companies operating in the exchange.  

And just to be sure the we won't be doing this again for another 40 years or so.  Not good enough!

Way to Go Cleveland!

So, after the 10th body was taken from Anthony Sowell's home I thought it was time to call my mom.   I noticed a girl I grew up with claimed this serial killer lived in our neighborhood, but I couldn't corroborate this because no one is saying what neighborhood in Cleveland.  According to my mother Anthony Sowell is about twenty minutes from her on East 123th and Imperial Ave.  

As of this evening we have a total of 1o bodies and pleas to the community to come forward with information about missing girls from the neighborhood.  The charges Sowell is facing are kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder.  

The bodies were discovered when officers served warrants for another attempted rape and sexual assault.  Sowell is described as a professional scrapper, which for those who don't know is someone who makes a living by selling scrap metal to scrap yards.  

There is a Day to Celebrate Awkward Moments! We Need to Get on This.

At work today, I was putting together a calendar for our magazine and website.  Sometimes I try to slip something to see if anyone reads anything we put in print.  I found the most wonderful holiday ever: March 18, Awkward Moments Day.

Jim get ready.  Really, these shouldn't be planned, but I can't help but get excited about this.  Also, it is the day after St. Patrick's Day.  Because whoever created this day knew the walk of shame well.  

Obviously More Women Should be Prostitutes...

Authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, Freakonomics, are putting out a new book entitled Superfreakonomics.  This new book takes an look at prostitution but in the excerpt available thus far profiles two women.  The first works the street in Chicago's South Side making $350 per week.  The second works 15 hours a week in a pretty bedroom for $500 an hour.  This second woman is credited with developing entrepreneurial skills.  These gentlemen never mention race, but this could be interpreted as a story of race and class.  They provide physical descriptions of both women:  "straightened hair" vs. blonde.  The first woman doesn't get much of a background, but the second grew up in a middle class dysfunction family.  

The authors ignore the differences in the backgrounds of the women.  They claim that there is nothing to be concerned about in the "kind" of prostitution practiced by the second woman, but they have cited her dysfunctional family without further discussion, but using the information we know about sex workers most have severely troublesome upbringings.  I am pretty concerned about this book.

Jezebel and The Times Online both looked at this book.

Pre-Existing Condition: Woman?

Broadsheet had this lovely video, and I couldn't help but post it. In light of domestic violence being named a pre-existing condition, and the neglect of women's health concerns in the health care reform bill I thought it was necessary.

Abortion Anyone?

The Broadsheet over at Salon made a nice list of why abortion should be included by health insurance. The argument is that abortion is a medical procedure and should be covered by insurance, but some, and I won't point fingers, would have abortion not covered. Many people agree that abortion should be covered by health insurance because health care should dictate coverage not politics. Anyway this is the list from Salon:

1. Abortion is legal medical care.

2. Abortion is common, mainstream medical care. It is one of the most common surgical procedures in America.

3. Abortion is already broadly covered. Between 50 and 85 percent of women who have private insurance, including employer-sponsored plans, have coverage for abortion care.

4. Covering abortion does not raise the abortion rate.

5. Covering abortion makes abortion safer.

6. Covering abortion is what the people want. [More people agree that abortion should remain legal now than when Roe v. Wade was passed by the Supreme Court.]

7. Excluding abortion from coverage sends us down a slippery "moral" slope.

8. And about that "elective" business. Kissling: "Let's have insurance companies hold an annual poll of subscribers and decide on a majority basis what gets covered. Let's especially ask if they want their premiums to pay for obesity-related diseases, smoking-related diseases, STDs, neonatal intensive care where the life expectancy is less than 5 percent and put a cap on care for people over 80."

9. Without coverage, there is no "choice." Sex -- a natural human drive for most -- entails risks. Even with the best prevention measures, there will be unintended pregnancies. Jacobson: "Women must be able to make the choice of whether or not to bear children because unintended pregnancy entails emotional, financial and psychic costs that will be borne only or largely by the woman."

10. Megan Carpentier, former Jezebel writer and current editor of News and Politics of Air America Radio, sums it up thusly: "Why should abortion be covered? Because sometimes abortion is medically necessary, and the government shouldn't be writing regulations from Washington that tell a woman in Kansas when that is. Because exempting cases of rape and incest, as the Hyde Amendment does, means that women who are victims of rape and incest don't get the coverage they're supposed to have anyway, because there's no way to police whether their pregnancies are the result of government-approved circumstances. Because there's no actual government money that's going to get spent on the so-called public option, so it's a question of whether you, with your own money, can get insurance that covers what you choose to have it cover. And because eliminating coverage that currently exists through federal law is just another back-door way for the antiabortion movement to make it more difficult and expensive for women to get a legal medical procedure, since they can't convince women not to have abortions on the 'merits' of their arguments."

I slimmed down the earlier portion of the list because it was massive, but the later ones need a little more explanation.

I Heart Joss Whedon!

I love Joss Whedon. I love his characters; I love the comics he wrote. This is from his speech at Equality Now.

Obvious Child, a pregger movie long over due

Obvious Child from Gillian Robespierre on Vimeo.

I loved this when I saw it a last week, but unfortunately between papers and presentations I've been having trouble updating with regular frequency.  Well, all enjoy the film...

Daily on Al Franken

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape-Nuts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but didn't have the time.  Thankfully, Jon Stewart is there.  Please note, that most of the Republicans who voted for the amendment were women.

Cupcakes for Life?

So, I'm having a little trouble believing this is a site.  I mean really?  Of course there is a good message here, after all it is way more important to give out what I'm going to call the "Awkward Cupcake."  I imagine the exchange would go something like this:

 

Pro-Lifer: Want a cupcake?

Me: Of course! Better question what kind of evil person wouldn't?!?

Pro-Lifer: [hands me the cupcake, which reads "I love babies"] They're pro-life, because abortion is murder.

Me:...k...Thanks [I was raised to be polite].

Pro-Lifer: You're welcome go with God.

Me: Nope still pro-choice and not a believer, but the cupcake is awesome. [Maybe a thumbs up].

Then I imagine this turning into some kind of debate between myself with my logic and distribution of information verses someone who believes giving out cupcakes will help bring down the number of people receiving abortions.  It doesn't really seem fair. 

 

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this logic in the first place because cupcakes are being made for the aborted babies, but doesn't this feel like a waste of money.  It feels very like a attention grabbing gimmick. 

 

So they have a question and answer section on their website, and this was my favorite:

Q.) What if my school won't allow me to bring in cup cakes?

A1.) Give them out before or after school!
A2.) Do it anyway and be quick about it! Also be very apologetic and kind if you get caught.
A3.) Ask for permission to bring in pre-packaged cupcakes from a bakery!
A4.) Just pass out flyers and make cupcakes after school and hand them out to your neighbors in the name of life. Whatever you do, don't give up when confronted by opposition!
A5.) Just hand them out somewhere besides school.
A6.) Ask to set up a table at your local grocery store.

I can't decide if I like A2.  or not.  I mean I like civil disobedience, and my kids would give a Pro-Lifer something to think about if he/she tried to push him/her beliefs off on my metaphorical child. However, the do it quickly seems to negate any implication of civil disobedience.  I'd encourage my kid to hand out "pro-murder" cupcakes (the pro-choice version) establishment be damned.