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The Hubby's 40th

Last Friday we celebrated the Hubby’s 40th birthday. He decided that his ideal celebration would be dinner and a movie with friends, which over a few conversations evolved into renting a movie theater, showing one of his favorite movies of all time, and sharing dinner with ALL THE FRIENDS!

We decided to make the Hubby’s 40th birthday party kind of a big deal.

Continue reading “The Hubby's 40th”

The Hubby's 40th

The Hubby’s 40th

Last Friday we celebrated the Hubby’s 40th birthday. He decided that his ideal celebration would be dinner and a movie with friends, which over a few conversations evolved into renting a movie theater, showing one of his favorite movies of all time, and sharing dinner with ALL THE FRIENDS!

We decided to make the Hubby’s 40th birthday party kind of a big deal.

Continue reading “The Hubby’s 40th”

The Hubby’s 40th

SAY IT WITH ME

An embryo is not a baby.

A fetus is not a baby.

A woman who aborts an embryo or fetus, whether by intentional abortion or by miscarriage, is not a murderer.

If you’re thinking “but what if”…

Just stop.

Your puny hypothetical insults the majority of people who will never be in the position you’ve conjectured.

Moving on.

Miscarriage is a medical emergency, not a criminal offense.

A woman who is miscarrying a fetus is due emergency medical treatment.

A miscarriage that is “in progress” means that there is no saving the embryo or fetus. Game over.

Don’t punish women who are miscarrying by denying them emergency medical treatment. You cannot save the fetus; treat the human being who is alive.

If you criminalize a woman who has aborted or miscarried a fetus, you are harming a human being.

Also you’re an asshole.

Next,

Pro-life activism is a waste of all of our lives, and is harmful to the lives of the women and men and gender-nonconforming people which it attempts to shame. Pro-life activism harms one human life for the sake of a potential human life. It places a higher value on a potential human life than on the life of someone who is here now and needs our support.

Recognize pro-life activism for the moral masturbation that it is.

If you are a pro-life activist, you are doing a bad thing.

Also, you’re probably being an asshole while you’re doing it.

And you’re a hypocrite.

If you spend your time trying to pass pro-life, anti-woman, woman-shaming legislation you are wasting your life and wasting the time, money and very short attention span of the constituency and the rest of the world and your’re holding our society back from evolving into a more enlightened state.

Stop it.

Sending a mother to jail for having an abortion or a miscarriage, and in the process depriving her for reals kids of a guardian is bad for the mom, bad for the kids and bad for society.

Interrogating women who have stated that they have miscarried to make sure that it wasn’t really a secret abortion is cruel and nothing less than a totalitarian action by government.

Forcing families to spend precious resources on a legal defense to prove their “innocence” in having a miscarriage is heartless and callous and ignorant and a odious way to advance a political objective.

Today’s rage blogging is brought to you by Think Progress and the ACLU.

SAY IT WITH ME

Cross-Country Connections: Best Photo

Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. This week’s theme is Best Photo.

From Erin in Takoma Park, Maryland: 

A green grassy plain, horses in the distance. Above a stormy gray sky.
This isn’t the photo I was thinking I would use last week, but I guess like everything else, perceptions change about my photography skillz. Something about the colors in this one are doing it for me today. Maybe I just really need spring to get here.

From Mom in Hagerstown, Maryland: 

The Eiffel Tower by night
I don’t know if this is the best I ever took, it it pleases me because it is a night shot which I’m usually not very good at.  Besides…its Paris!

From me in Minneapolis, Minnesota:

CCC Best Photo Brianne
This photo from the 2012 Minnesota State Fair is one of my favorite photos that I’ve taken. I love the look on the rooster’s face, and the sharpness of the details makes me happy!

Cross-Country Connections: Best Photo

Cross-Country Connections: Water

Cross-Country Connections is a Biodork weekly blog entry dedicated to telling stories in pictures of three family members – me, my sister and Mom – living in different locations across the country. Every week we choose a different theme and then take or contribute a personal photo that fits the theme. This week’s theme is Water.

From me in Minneapolis, Minnesota: 

Water is turned on, water is blasting up out of the eye wash faucets and coming down out of the main spigot.
Water faucet and eye wash in the lab, drying pegs visible in the background.

From Erin in Takoma Park, Maryland:

A sailboat with sail tied down is docked and pointing out towards a distant shoreline.
This one was hard for me; I’ve gotten to take some pretty amazing pictures of waterscapes. I decided to make it honest and take one from my current place. This is the harbor at Annapolis, MD.

From Mom in Hagerstown, Maryland:

A hardy, green coastline is in the foreground, blue ocean with low, windswept waves beneath a sky white with clouds.
Man I wish I was looking at the beach in Mexico right now instead of the ice on my driveway.

Cross-Country Connections: Water

Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones Aren't About Restricting Free Speech

My head is spinning on this one, folks.

You’ve likely heard of McCullen v. Coakley. Or if that doesn’t sound familiar, perhaps you’ve heard that the Supreme Court is hearing a case that could cost Massachusetts abortion clinics their buffer zones, and potentially impact similar buffer zones across the country. If you haven’t heard about this, trust me, it’s going on right now. Or don’t trust me. Google that shit.

A buffer zone around an abortion clinic is an area in which protesters are not allowed, and these buffer zones may overlap with public areas like sidewalks. In Massachusetts, the zone is 35 feet. An image in the New York Times shows the zone for one Planned Parenthood. It’s, like…itty bitty. Super itty bitty. Anyone entering the Planned Parenthood via that entrance is going to pass right through or very close to legal protest areas, and they’re going to have ample opportunity to converse with protesters…if they choose to do so. If they don’t want anything to do with protesters, they can be assured that their walk to the clinic doors will at least be physically unimpeded.

Continue reading “Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones Aren't About Restricting Free Speech”

Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones Aren't About Restricting Free Speech

Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones Aren’t About Restricting Free Speech

My head is spinning on this one, folks.

You’ve likely heard of McCullen v. Coakley. Or if that doesn’t sound familiar, perhaps you’ve heard that the Supreme Court is hearing a case that could cost Massachusetts abortion clinics their buffer zones, and potentially impact similar buffer zones across the country. If you haven’t heard about this, trust me, it’s going on right now. Or don’t trust me. Google that shit.

A buffer zone around an abortion clinic is an area in which protesters are not allowed, and these buffer zones may overlap with public areas like sidewalks. In Massachusetts, the zone is 35 feet. An image in the New York Times shows the zone for one Planned Parenthood. It’s, like…itty bitty. Super itty bitty. Anyone entering the Planned Parenthood via that entrance is going to pass right through or very close to legal protest areas, and they’re going to have ample opportunity to converse with protesters…if they choose to do so. If they don’t want anything to do with protesters, they can be assured that their walk to the clinic doors will at least be physically unimpeded.

Continue reading “Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones Aren’t About Restricting Free Speech”

Abortion Clinic Buffer Zones Aren’t About Restricting Free Speech

Oil Pulling

You know what doesn’t sound like any fun at all? Rinsing my mouth with oil. For 20 minutes. First thing in the morning before I can have coffee.

A reader sent me a link to a website advocating “oil pulling”. This one was a new one for me, so I thought I’d share the skeptic’s goldmine that is oil pulling. What’s that? I haven’t told you what it is yet? It’s essentially rinsing one’s mouth with oil as part of a regular oral hygiene routine. The oil helps “pull” out toxins from your body, ya know?

Continue reading “Oil Pulling”

Oil Pulling