Remember Savita Halappanavar

Today marks three years since the death of Savita Halappanavar. Savita suffered health complications from a miscarriage at 17 weeks, presented to University Hospital Galway in Ireland for care, and was denied what would have been a life-saving abortion. Savita did not have to die. She was murdered by medical ineptitude, deadly and outdated abortion laws and moral outrage.

AbortionRightsRally

A Rally In Dublin In Memory Of Savita Halappanavar (2012) – William Murphy on Flickr

The New Republic published an article today called Let’s Just Say It: Women Matter More Than Fetuses Do. In the article Rebecca Traister talks about her own awareness of abortion as a crucial medical option during her two wanted pregnancies. She puts abortion alongside nuchal screening, amnio, and early Cesarean – that is, one of many tools that may need to come into play during a routine pregnancy. The article did not focus solely on “abortion as medical necessity” – this was simply the opening salvo. Continue reading “Remember Savita Halappanavar”

Remember Savita Halappanavar
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I don't want to be Elfstar anymore!

Oh my FSM – the Hubby and I just finished Dark Dungeons and I think I tore some nasal tissue from all of that snorting. I wish I would have had a chance to contribute to the Kickstarter for this film. By playing it straight, the director and cast highlight the delightful, hilarious absurdity of the claims intimated by the original Chick tract. They even managed to get a book burning in. Good on ’em!

Front of a DVD case showing the Dark Dungeons artwork - a shrouded figure holds a dagger and one hand held up to the view, moving through a cloud of smoke.

Like Debbie and Marcie, I didn’t have any experience with RPGs until college. And the RPGers were definitely thought of as the most popular kids at school (hahahaha!). And like Debbie I did unwittingly chant spells from the Necronomicon…oh no, wait. That didn’t happen. What happened is I spent way too much of my meager college money on source books and costume pieces (LARP is so waaaaay cooler than pencil and paper nerdery), devoted untold hours to studying fictional lore, and spent six hours every Saturday night running around Winona State’s empty English hall brandishing index cards filled out with handwritten weapon names and stats and throwing rock paper scissors. And then going out to Perkins at midnight to devour french fries and bottomless carafes of coffee.

It was awesome. No calling Cthulhu from the depths as far as I recall. Although I did have this one Gangrel character that was decent at Animalism until…goddamned Setites.

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I don't want to be Elfstar anymore!

I don’t want to be Elfstar anymore!

Oh my FSM – the Hubby and I just finished Dark Dungeons and I think I tore some nasal tissue from all of that snorting. I wish I would have had a chance to contribute to the Kickstarter for this film. By playing it straight, the director and cast highlight the delightful, hilarious absurdity of the claims intimated by the original Chick tract. They even managed to get a book burning in. Good on ’em!

Front of a DVD case showing the Dark Dungeons artwork - a shrouded figure holds a dagger and one hand held up to the view, moving through a cloud of smoke.

Like Debbie and Marcie, I didn’t have any experience with RPGs until college. And the RPGers were definitely thought of as the most popular kids at school (hahahaha!). And like Debbie I did unwittingly chant spells from the Necronomicon…oh no, wait. That didn’t happen. What happened is I spent way too much of my meager college money on source books and costume pieces (LARP is so waaaaay cooler than pencil and paper nerdery), devoted untold hours to studying fictional lore, and spent six hours every Saturday night running around Winona State’s empty English hall brandishing index cards filled out with handwritten weapon names and stats and throwing rock paper scissors. And then going out to Perkins at midnight to devour french fries and bottomless carafes of coffee.

It was awesome. No calling Cthulhu from the depths as far as I recall. Although I did have this one Gangrel character that was decent at Animalism until…goddamned Setites.

I don’t want to be Elfstar anymore!