Friday, September 22, 2006

In Which I Wax Pissy

First the nice stuff: Class was fun, yesterday, as I said. We had a good time, I think, and everyone learned something. My learning was, I learned to avoid invisible cast ons. Not that I'll never do one, just that I'm avoiding them.

I'm not leaving the house today. Not going to, and not even knitting needles being half off at Hobby Lobby is going to sway me. Why? One day this week, while going to Hyvee to drop off deposits (our bank is in there) and picking up some crab salad, some idiot left their cart out. Was it a windy day? Yes it was. Did it hit the pickup? Yes it did. Did I curse at the top of my lungs? Sailors would have cried in pain at my language. I sincerely hope that whoever left the cart heard me and was afraid. They needed to be. Every single time I go into a cart-bearing store, I drag one of those mudderfudders in. Like an idiot, I'm saving some jerk who doesn't deserve its car from the beautiful scrape I now have.

You'd think the rock hitting my windshield yesterday and putting in a spider-like crack in it would further enrage me, but no. That was an accident. No one drove over a rock to kick it up to damage whoever was behind. The crack is the size of a quarter and we're already researching dent and ding places.

If you have enough energy to grocery shop, dragging your feeble carcass through the store for all those sugar laden snacks, then you have enough energy to put your f'ing cart up, all right? The life you save will be your own.

A couple of other things that struck me as not right.

First of all is that Gay Senator. I watched his interview on Oprah, shilling his new book and showing off his boyfriend. I have no problem with him being gay, none with him being in office, none with him wanting to hide his orientation because it IS rough to go against the grain. There's not even a problem with him falling in love with a guy and slipping up. The way it sounded, it was the first time he'd ever done what he really wanted. Well, ok, I can understand.

What does bother me about this whole thing is the guy has now found God. I think he has, at least, because every other sentence had the word God in it. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, but the fact the guy had adulterous relationships all through his marriages IS a bad thing. Especially since he's written a book and his profiting from the scandal. We're supposed to overlook his affairs because he's gay. It's ok because he wasn't 'doing' women. Ummm hmmm. Bottom line is he made a promise to forsake all others, not to forsake only women. Next, it'll be ok for men to have affairs with women because, poor things, they're male lesbeanns. (Misspelled intentionally. For some reason, spammers think I'm totally not hetero and have male equipment that resembles little smokie wieners. Let's not add to that with a web reference to me, mmmkay?)

While we're on politics, lets go to Planned Parenthood. I'm on their mailing list. Can a person be pro life and pro choice? Sure! I don't think anyone should be forced into carrying a child, it's such a personal thing. But, I also don't think abortion should be a form of casual birth control. For me, it's one of those "In Case Of Emergency" things, not one of those, "I ran out of condoms, I'll get an abortion if I need it later." The birth control pill was invented by a Catholic doctor, trying to help overgrown and poverty stricken families. He ended up being very bitter over the Vatican's rejection of his efforts and I don't blame him. I think women ought to have free access to any form of birth control, just like men do. The pharmacists who refuse to carry the Pill should take condoms and other contraceptives off their shelf. Don't half-ass your beliefs, otherwise, it's discrimination.

Oddly enough, that isn't the rant. Who is the group most opposed to a woman's right to choose how her body is used in reproduction? Conservative Christians. That's neither good or bad, just the way it is. So when I get an email from Planned Parenthood titled "Release the Goddess within", I cringe. Sure enough, inside is a fundraiser (still ok), with vendors, talking about releasing your own inner goddess, inviting all goddesses and those who love them, and offering free tarot and palm readings.

Sigh. How will this paganistic event go over with the conservatives? "Turd in a punchbowl" comes to mind. No wonder these two are at odds. One group is quoting scripture while the other is dancing around a bonfire. The conservatives strike me as the most closed minded of the two groups, and they'll never be convinced to let women choose for themselves if Planned Parenthood takes a paganistic approach. Once you mention anything remotely related to New Age, the Christians' ears snap shut. Which is to be expected. Part of being human is not wanting to hear that you're wrong, and they do happen to be human. Neither side is all wrong or all right. Still, if Planned Parenthood wants to make actual inroads to a woman's right to birth control, they need to learn the conservative's language.

In other news... My mailman is a staunch conspiracy theorist. I'm sure he wins the "Most Likely To Go Postal" award every year. The nice thing is he likes me. Whew, huh? I'm sure he'd approve of my wonderings. ;) I'm thinking, the president's family is big oil. Venezuela produces a lot of oil. Could it be that our leader has somehow got their leader to talk smack about him? Think about it. The administration isn't saying anything about the trash talk, not wanting to dignify the comments with a retort, while all the Democrats are defending our own guy. Only Americans can call the president an idiot alcoholic? Um, yeah. Gas prices are lower and the Dems are defending him, so he's an ok guy? I'm sorry, go sell 'crazy' somewhere else. My memory, while notoriously bad, does go back longer than two weeks. Try again.

Told you I was pissy. Could it be the black of what I'm currently knitting rubbing off and making me look like my hands mine coal? Probably. ;)

3 comments:

Maenwyn said...

Um, tarot and palm readings aren't especially pagan, they're occult. Two totally different things.

I was thinking about the Goddess Within thing on the way home today and I think they mean release the power and beauty that is within. Nothing Pagan about that, just inviting women to be who they are supposed to be.

Just another POV.

Laura said...

Hm. I don't think occult is going to sway the conservatives into letting us have the Pill, either. ;) I care about which term is correct, but I don't think they will, it's all tools of the Devil to them.

I'll forward you the email. I liked it, have been to those sort of functions and have even been asked to read the cards for others. If Planned Parenthood is relying on its current advocates to vote on its pet policies, then the whole goddess thing is great. From what I know after being in the Bible belt, once an organization uses terms like goddess, tarot, and palm readings, it loses credibility with the Christian conservatives. I've even had one tell me that astrology was the tool of the Devil. Yikes, huh? Who knew that a silly little horoscope was so bad?

I say silly because mine alluded to people other than me doing the housework. Didn't happen. ;) Yes, I'm bitter.

Maenwyn said...

I don't think the Planned Parenthood group is trying to play to the conservative Christians, they don't like PP's agenda, anyway.

Most of the people I know who are supporters are open-minded, accepting people who think women should have a choice in the matter. There are a lot of fundamentalists that don't think we should, for any reason. My background in Child Protection has taught me that it doesn't make the world a better place to have babies having babies.

I'm with you on the abortion as birth control issue. There are too many ways to prevent pregnancy available for that to be a viable method (for me).

Slow and Steady Wins the Race