1.24.2007

On this day in history

I was eight hours old when Johnny Rotten took the stage

41

Roman Emperor Caligula is assassinated by the Praetorian Guards

76

Hadrian, Roman Emperor, is born

1679

King Charles II of England disbands Parliament

1848

James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill, California Gold Rush begins

1857

The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia

1862

Edith Wharton, American writer, is born

1908

Robert Baden-Powell founds the boy scouts

1916

In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.

1918

Oral Roberts, American evangelist, is born

1924

St. Petersburg, Russia is renamed Leningrad.

1925

Maria Tallchief, American ballerina, is born

1927

Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England

1941

Neil Diamond, American singer, is born

1944

Klaus Nomi, German synth-pop messiah, is born

1965

Winston Churchill dies

1966

An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117

1977

Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy

1978

A blogger is born

Another blogger is born on this day, but I'll spare her the indignity of mentioning the year!

1984

The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale

1986

L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology founder and general crackpot, dies

Wapping dispute. Newspaper workers in London launch ultimately unsuccessful strike against Rupert Murdoch's News International

1989

Ted Bundy, American serial killer, is executed

1993

Thurgood Marshall, first black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, dies

2003

The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation

2006

Disney agrees to purchase Pixar in an all-cash deal, making Steve Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney

2007

Annamaria takes a silly idea way too far

Labels: Shameless Self Promotion

annamaria at 6:41 AM

4 spoke

1.22.2007

Because...

Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, and in commemoration feminist bloggers are celebrating in our own way: we're blogging for choice. This year's topic is so straight-forward and simple, I almost feared I wouldn't have much to say. After all, isn't obvious why I'm pro-choice? I'd think that anyone that knows me, or reads this blog with any regularity, would recognize immediately why I work so hard to maintain reproductive freedoms.

I don't remember a time when I was anything but pro-choice. From the moment that I was aware of and able to conceptualize the issue of abortion (back when I was a wee little one of ten or so), I understood implicitly the importance of recognizing that women are and should be the guardians of their own bodies and reproduction. I used to wear buttons in middle and high school that looked like this:



It was an indelible image, and despite never having lived in a time when women were forced to resort to back alley butchers and dangerous home remedies, I still felt with passion and conviction the belief that we cannot, will not, go back. My Catholic upbringing did nothing to disabuse me of the notion that it is simply just and moral to recognize a woman's right to choose. I argued with priests and Catechism instructors, I argued with teachers and friends, and I went to college and volunteered at clinics, and argued with protesters bent on shaming women but not lifting a finger to help them. But in all that time, in nearly 20-years of feminist consciousness, never once have I articulated precisely why I am pro-choice. I never had to; it was enough for me to know that I am. So here is my attempt to remedy that.

I am pro-choice:

• Because I trust women. I trust women as rational creatures to evaluate the circumstances of their own lives and decide for themselves if they are ready, willing and able to have a (or another) child. I trust that women understand the risks and consequences of pregnancy, motherhood and abortion, and to weigh those risks and consequences according to what is best for them. I don't trust outsiders, no matter how earnest or kind-hearted, to fully recognize the impact that unwanted pregnancy has on a woman's life. I don't trust that people wholly unrelated to any individual woman can ever have her best interests at heart when forcing her to make a decision contrary to her own feelings and reality.

• Because the leading cause of death for pregnant women in the United States is murder. For some women, the decision to continue a pregnancy will literally put their lives in danger.

• Because there is a inverse relationship between laws restricting reproductive rights and the quality of women's lives. In every country that recognizes women's bodily autonomy, women are safer, make more money, are more educated and generally happier. The ability to determine when, if and how many times she becomes a mother is the leading determinant of every other factor in a woman's life: her level of education, socio-economic status, her ability to escape an abusive relationship, and her overall health.

• Because babies are not a punishment. Right-wing rhetoric, you know those moral people who constantly blather about family values, is rife with accusations of women avoiding the negative consequences of sex by having an abortion. They argue that these women made their beds and now they must lie in them, as if children are some punishment from on high for failure to live by someone else's moral statutes. Children are cute, they're adorably naive and often say funny things without meaning to. They make life better for those around them because they bring with them the promise of hope and a better world. They remind us that our time of this planet should be filled with wonder and joy. They make messes and sometimes smell funny, but that's okay because they also laugh at butterflies and give us kisses with chocolate-smeared mouths simply because they felt like it. They are not scarlet letters to be worn as evidence of moral failure. They're too precious. And their lives are too precious to forced upon someone unable to care for them as they deserve.

• Because I believe that pregnant women are to be supported by society, not co-opted. Pro-choice activism in the United States often centers around the termination (or prevention) of pregnancy, but inherent in the belief that women should not be forced to continue a pregnancy, is the concomitant conviction that women who choose to remain pregnant should have the full resources of society available to them in that choice. That means pre-natal care for poor women who often go without due to lack of access or resources. It means the availability of midwifery for women who would rather not submit to the often patriarchal nature of obstetrician/hospital birth. It means calling a ceasefire on the public shaming of pregnant women: if a pregnant women is addicted to illegal substances, she should have the ability to get treatment for both her addiction and her child. No more arresting women post-labor for the presence of alcohol or drugs in her system—the crack down on addicted mothers does nothing to help children and everything to prevent these women from seeking quality pre-natal care for fear of imprisonment. And most importantly, it means helping women and their children after pregnancy—public housing and assistance for poor families, access to inexpensive yet healthy food, government funded or subsidized quality day care, paid family leave, flexible work hours, asserting the right of mothers to nurse in public, etc.

• Because I am pro-life. I respect life, and more importantly, I respect quality of life. I believe that women's lives have value, that we are important, we are human and we contribute more to society than simply our ability to populate the earth. Treating pregnancy and child-rearing as a yoke to prevent women from fully participating in the public sphere oppresses not only women, but men and children as well. It prevents men from fashioning for themselves an identity beyond breadwinner and monetary provider. It treats men's relationships with their children as secondary and incidental, particularly as concerns a child's emotional development. It tells men that their ability to be an effective and loving father is not natural, that they will never be able to bond with their children in the same way, or to any degree similar to, a woman's ability. And as I've blogged about before, children who are the result of unwanted pregnancies suffer as well, even into adulthood:

  
  The adverse health consequences of teenagers' inability to control their childbearing can be particularly severe. Teenage mothers are more likely to suffer toxemia, anemia, birth complications, and death. Babies of teenage mothers are more likely to have low birth weight and suffer birth injury and neurological defects. Such babies are twice as likely to die in the first year of life as babies born to mothers who delay childbearing until after age 20.

  Both unintended and unwanted childbearing can have negative health, social, and psychological consequences. Health problems include greater chances for illness and death for both mother and child. In addition, such childbearing has been linked with a variety of social problems, including divorce, poverty, child abuse, and juvenile delinquency. In one study, unwanted children were found less likely to have had a secure family life. As adults they were more likely to engage in criminal behavior, be on welfare, and receive psychiatric services. Another found that children who were unintended by their mothers had lower self-esteem than their intended peers 23 years later.

  The biggest lie anti-choicers tell is that they are pro-life. When they fail to recognize that mere existence is not a life, all they achieve is making the lives of others more difficult, more miserable and less fulfilled. When they argue that the only moral abortion is my abortion, they betray an hypocrisy that undercuts any semblance of integrity or virtue. They show themselves as they truly are: zealots who fear and hate women for not being afraid or repentant or cowed by a misogynistic worldview.
  

Labels: Blog for Choice, Feminism, Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries

annamaria at 6:34 AM

0 spoke

1.19.2007

Friday Random Ten: Damn the Man! Edition

Labels: FRT

annamaria at 6:14 AM

1 spoke

1.18.2007

Damn you, corporate overlords!

annamaria at 5:35 PM

0 spoke

1.13.2007

New Year New Template

Labels: Housekeeping

annamaria at 9:57 PM

2 spoke

The President who cried wolf

Labels: Men We Love, Politics

annamaria at 10:37 AM

1 spoke

1.12.2007

Friday Random Ten: Long Weekend Edition

If only I were Irish...

I know I just got back to work from a glorious week off, but I really need this long weekend. What I don't need is my white coworkers wondering why we get Martin Luther King day off work, but not President's Day. I've finally started asking them these two questions:

1.) Name one, just one, thing that Dr. King did to make this country a better place.

2.) Name one, just one, thing that James K. Polk did to make this country a better place.

If I get more than a vacant stare at question number two, I will deign to engage the speaker in conversation about the merits of treating Dr. King's birthday as a holiday. Because, it's not like we don't live in the blackest city in America or anything.

FRT:

1. Fiesta - The Pogues
   Come all you rambling boys of pleasure, and ladies of easy leisure
   
2. I Was Meant for the Stage - The Decemberists
   Rays of light shone down on me and all my sins were pardoned
   
3. Promises of Eternity - The Magnetic Fields
   No Seven, no 8 1/2, no Nine, and no 10
   
4. Penny for a Thought - Saul Williams
   We're performing an exorcism on all this keep-it-realism
   
5. The Angels' Share - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
   We saved and saved, only to find them spent
   
6. B.O.B. - Outkast
   Seventy-five emcee's freestylin' to the beat
   
7. Neapolitan Bridesmaid - Tarkio
   Albert Camus said living is anguish
   
8. Tokyo Storm Warning - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
   Death wears a big hat 'cause he's a big bloke
   
9. Ana Ng - They Might Be Giants
   I don't want the world, I just want your half
   
10. Try a Little Tenderness - Otis Redding
    Ooh she may be weary

Leave your ten in the comments, as well as any accomplishments of the esteemed President Polk of which I may not be aware.

UPDATE: I did another FRT just that I could share with you this fun new toy:

Click on standalone player, and you can listen along!

Labels: FRT

annamaria at 7:16 AM

9 spoke

1.11.2007

Oh Noes!!1!1!

Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz are officially kaput. The duo, dating since 2003, confirmed their split Thursday in a joint statement.

"We have, in fact, ended our romantic relationship, and have done so mutually and as friends, with continued love and respect for one another," the pair said.

The two said they usually prefer not to comment on their relationship, but recent speculation and inaccuracies prompted them to issue the statement.

Labels: Pop Culture

annamaria at 8:39 PM

0 spoke

Fundies say the darndest things!

Fundies explain atheism:

"No, everyone is born Christian. Only later in life do people choose to stray from Jesus and worship satan instead. Atheists have the greatest "cover" of all, they insist they believe in no god yet most polls done and the latest research indicates that they are actually a different sect of Muslims."

Fundies explain physics:

"One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it. [emphasis added]"

Fundies explain away their kid's obvious gayness:

"I am a bit troubled. I believe my son has a girlfriend, because she left a dirty magazine with men in it under his bed. My son is only 16 and I really don't think he's ready to date yet. What's worse is that he's sneaking some girl to his room behind my back. I need help, God! I want my son to stop being so secretive!"

Fundies explain etymology and how to ignore history:

If your original Hebrew disagrees with my original King James --- your original Hebrew is wrong. If your original Hebrew agrees with my original King James, your original Hebrew is right."

Fundies explain simian biology:

[Replying to 'as for not seeing evolution it takes several million years... incase you missed that memo...']

several million years for a monkey to turn into a man. oh wait thats right. monkeys dont live several million years."

Fundies explain moral consistency:

"I appreciate your recommendation, and it is intriguing, but as a pro-lifer, I cannot support an organization that is opposed to the death penalty."

Fundies explain Michelle Malkin:

"[On homosexuality being a condition one is born with]

Just because you are born a certain way doesn't meant that is the way you have to be. Some people are born Asian, but through surgeries and counseling they can change."

Fundies explain closed-captioning:

"But God don't talk in Arabic. He talks in a REAL language, namely, English. It's true that back in them days He translated that to some other language after Speaking it in English, but after all, it's His universe and He can do what He doggone well wants to do."

Fundies explain Neanderthal* courting rituals:

"If u have sex before marriage then in Gods eyes u are married to that person if a man rapes a woman in Gods eyes they are married it sucks for the girl but what can we do lol"

Fundies explain Marlene Dietrich:

"Men should stick to blue and women should stick to pink. We dress babies in the right colors so why can't we do the same as adults? It is a sin to wear clothes that belongs to the opposite sex and women are particularly bad at violating this rule. Men don't wear dresses (apart from a few sickos) so why should females wear pants? It's a sin! Most women today are transvestites and abominations. [...]

So please dress like a man if you are a man and dress like a woman if you are woman and stop flaunting your satanic lifestyle and defiance of God. Thanks."

Labels: Fundies Say The Darndest Things

annamaria at 7:08 PM

0 spoke

Someone get James Kopp a new dictionary

click on the map, then click on a state to see a history of abortion clinic violence

Malice:

1. desire to inflict injury, harm, or suffering on another, either because of a hostile impulse or out of deep-seated meanness: the malice and spite of a lifelong enemy
2. Law: evil intent on the part of a person who commits a wrongful act injurious to others.

1. an act or instance of premeditating.
2. Law. sufficient forethought to impute deliberation and intent to commit the act.

On the evening of October 23, 1998, anti-choice terrorist James Kopp* laid in wait in the woods behind Dr. Barnett Slepian’s home with a high-powered military rifle equipped with telescopic sights. Dr. Slepian and his family had just arrived home from his father’s funeral; when Slepian passed in front of a kitchen window, Kopp fired the shot that killed him—in full view of Slepian’s wife and two of their four children.

In Federal Court on Tuesday, Kopp apologized to Lynne Slepian for murdering her husband. In an effort to save his own ass from serving a mandatory life sentence, Kopp (acting as his own counsel), defended himself against murder charges by arguing that he didn’t mean to kill the doctor, only maim him. According to Kopp, since he’s so very, very sorry, and he surely never thought that shooting someone in the shoulder with a military rifle could possibly kill them, he is totally and completely innocent of these silly murder charges.

Earlier Tuesday, Kopp used his opening statement to tell jurors that Slepian's death was "a full-bore, 100 percent tragedy" but was not murder because it was not malicious or premeditated.

Kopp has acknowledged planning the shooting for a year and then firing a high-powered military rifle with telescopic sights from the woods behind the Slepian home, but he has said he meant only to wound the doctor to prevent him from performing abortions."Shoot them in the head, blow up a car, riddle their body with bullets like they do in the movies. That's how you kill someone" with premeditation, Kopp said.

He urged jurors to look for evidence of premeditation or malice toward Slepian. "If you don't see it, that's me proving my case," he said.

Apparently, intent to do harm and a year's worth of planning are lost on Kopp. As the old adage goes, a man who represents himself will have a fool for a client.

-------------------
*And I will damn well call him a terrorist. He’s a member of Army of God, whose other members include Eric Rudolph and Clayton Waagner. AOG "Chaplain" Michael Bray has also spoken approvingly of the public beheadings of homosexuals in Saudi Arabia. How very pro-life of him.

Labels: Fundies Say The Darndest Things, Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries

annamaria at 12:40 PM

3 spoke

1.05.2007

Friday Random Ten: Back to Work Edition

In a just world my hair would be this color.
And I'd have a voice like Patsy Cline.

Labels: FRT

annamaria at 8:36 AM

0 spoke