Yes, Well, Plus State of Self

Here. And a sincere FUCK YOU VERY MUCH to all (edit: that is, the subset of) the white dudes and straight white Christian ladies who are convinced everything will be fine through the next four years.  People of color, religious minorities, immigrants, queer people... even some straight white Christian friends in town with black children?  We're all terrified. (Along with anyone who has sense.)

Now that we've gotten that over with.

I am in... less pain!  I have not achieved No Pain since June.  However, I have a lot of drugs now and a very expensive round of physical therapy.  It's getting better.  I feel like one day I might be Mostly Better.  Huzzah.

Today I did my first round of Terrifying Antibody Thing.  It was enlivened by a brief round of intense itching.  Friends, itching is not good when you have been injected with antibodies. However, it mostly went away.  My kind neighbor watched Sweetpea for two and a half hours while I sat about knitting, trying to not go into anaphylactic shock. Good times for all.

Next semester I have been roped into teaching something I don't really want to teach.  For Reasons.  (If I say no now, it's no forever; it pays fairly well for fairly little effort; it's actually the Science Thing I know and like the best; there is the possibility for more interesting work in the future; I know and like the person who offered me the job and therefore I have a reasonable expectation it will be okay.)  I'm a bit afraid I'm going to end up teaching forever because I'm lazy.  Yes, yes, I know: I don't have to do it if I don't want to.  But if the choices are This, Nothing, or Move, then This wins.  Is this better than nothing?  Sure, fine. 

My assortment of part-time babysitters is working out pretty well.  The kids love them, Sweetpea runs up and demands "Lap! Read book!", and everyone is in one piece when I get home.

I continue to apply for Other Jobs. (They never write, they never call.) 

I am taking an (online) class in databases from Mountain State University - it's surprisingly good, taught by someone with a deep and abiding love of the database- and predictably, writing code is the only part of it I'm actually good at.

Between my students and the election, I have a terrible headache, so I'm taking to my bed and trying again tomorrow....

On Being Anti-Abortion, But Only Kind Of

Before you all expire from shock, clutching your pearls, let me add: I am also entirely pro-choice and it is a major deal-breaker when I vote. Politician won't respect a woman's bodily autonomy?  Die in a fire.

Sometimes - frequently - among pro-choice rhetoric I find this idea: We all have to be okay with abortions at any point in a pregnancy because we support a women's right to choose.  It's a normal medical procedure!  Nobody should feel uncomfortable with it!

Well.... no.  There is a point where it turns from a fetus into a baby who could, in fact, survive on the outside. I will continue to support every woman's right to end a pregnancy but actually no, I don't have to feel like it's just the same as outpatient sinus surgery and yes, I do feel morally conflicted. (Except the part where not my body, not my business, just like every other medical procedure.)  Possibly third trimester abortions should be rare- but they are.  And definitely I think  that we should fund Planned Parenthood adequately; that every woman should have access to reliable, affordable birth control, and prenatal services that don't cost an arm and a leg*; and we should have decent maternity leave and support for going back to work and so on.

And then I read something like Texas's weasely anti woman arguments and seriously, FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE.  You know what?? Burn Texas down!  Abortions for everyone!  RBG forever!


* I was charged $40 per visit on my fancy insurance.  Do you know how many prenatal visits I had?  13.  Plus five postnatal visits.  Plus the hospital bill for me and the baby and, and, and... (Yes, their ACA exemption has finally expired. Insurance still sucks.)

In Which I Am Bitter (About Government)

"They're all crooks," my mother is wont to mutter.  (Of course, I think she may have voted for McCain.  I considered asking her to have a psych evaluation, but confined myself to pointing out that Sarah Palin thinks you can see Russia from Alaska.) (Yes, I know there's some tiny island where it's true.  Tina Fey's version is funnier.)

Anyhow.  Dr. S is technically a state employee, except not really, on account of he gets no state benefits except previously-good health insurance.  Now it is sucky health insurance.  I am resigned to being poor; I quit my damn job, after all, and it's hopefully not forever

HOWEVER.

I am not resigned to having our rat-weasel nutjob Republican governor take away 15% of our gross income to 'balance the budget', by which he means give tax breaks to the rich in- coincidentally!- the same amount he's taking from the poor.   Rat.  Weasel. RATWEASEL. 

I Have Five Minutes For My Righteous Indignation

1) All those rat weasel Republicans (also, Rat Weasel Lieberman) who keep harping on about how Obama's saddling the country with debt. Where were they when Bush was selling our children's futures for his dirty little fought-with-mercenaries armed conflict on two fronts? How about for an encore we invade Russia in the winter?

2) WARS are declared by Congress. See also: Constitution.

3) Heard a piece on NPR today about median-income families in America. Story about a family (mom, two kids) who make about the median. They are "struggling to get by" and can "barely make it". We make a great deal less and (though we are insanely frugal) have a comfortable surplus. Where the hell are they spending all their money? Cellphone bills? Car insurance? I am honestly curious. Surely there is more to the story.

To clarify: This family makes 110% of what we do, and lives in the semi-rural Northeast. The cost of living there is about 20% higher than here. Approximately 36% of our income goes to savings each month. So... their money is going somewhere other than cost-of-living.

I calculated it and if I scale up our expenses 20%, these people could theoretically have somewhere between $400 and $900 per month left over (depending how frugal they are), assuming a 25% tax rate. This is why I wonder.

In Which I Am Enraged

This morning I was reminded that my middle sister still votes in the US. Not only that, but she votes based purely on what is best for the country she lives in.

What's wrong with that? you ask. Well.... she lives in Israel.

I truly and firmly believe that it is wrong for her- and her husband! and one day, her children! who will have never lived in the US!!!- to keep voting in US elections. They intend to never return. Let me say that again: THEY ARE NEVER COMING BACK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. They vote based only on what is good for another country, not on what is good for America, or their families, or American citizens. It's wrong. They do not pay taxes in the US; they do not live in the US, and they have not for a long time; they are tourists every few years. They have no connection except for their passports.

If they were abroad for a short time, if they cared about America, if they had consciences about it, it wouldn't bother me so much. I voted when I was abroad, but I was coming back. What about those people who choose to leave forever? And who, to boot, don't care about their country of origin except as a means to an end?

It may be legal, but it's immoral.

I suppose I should be comforted by the thought that such people are few.

Addendum: I don't think caring about the country or paying taxes or living in the US are or should be, in themselves, qualifications for voting. I don't think the US should disenfranchise expats. I do think that my sister, having forever disavowed all connection with the US, shouldn't bloody well vote. Especially since she always goes for the nutters. Alas, she and Dr. S's rabidly racist/conservative 94-year-old-grandma will continue to vote as long as physically able. But I don't have to like it. (I can't wait to hear what Grandma has to say about this election. I love her, but good Lord is she a product of her times.)

VOTE NOW.

VOTE.

Thank you.

I will go bite my nails for 24 hours now.

My New Favorite Commercial, Or, Guess That Party!

Congressman for Re-Election!
Congressman in front of factory. 'Stop sending US jobs overseas!'
Congressman in front of statehouse. 'Stop sending state contracts overseas!'
Congressman in front of oil well. 'Congress has prevented oil drilling in most of the US!'
Congressman in front of dollar bill. 'We should rescind the ban and drill in the US!'
Congressman in front of... windmill. 'So we can take the fees from the oil companies and invest in clean energy! Like windmills!'
Picture of Congressman in front of.... solar panels. 'And solar energy!'
(...what?)

-fin-

For a Rare Change, On Politics

Because they said it better than I could, and because it is a very personal tragedy when someone loses their much-wanted and much-loved babies late in pregnancy:

Dear John McCain,

...when you discussed your feelings about partial birth abortion during the debate last night, your true opinions became clear to me. You really are a social conservative; it was in 2000 that you were playing a role. When you discussed partial birth abortion and used quotes around the "health" of a mother, claiming that the idea of preserving a woman's health has been "stretched" so that woman can just go ahead and abort babies willy-nilly whenever they want showed your true colors. You really ARE a small-minded anti-choice hater of women.

You've bought the propaganda. Even if I tell you that late term abortions make up only one fifth of 1% of ALL abortions that happen in this country, and that they are performed universally only in cases of extreme risk to the mother or lack of viability for the child, you won't believe me. In your mind, women like me are sluts that got what we deserve, and changed our minds at the last minute when the reality of a baby became clear. If I tell you that the day my doctor performed my life-saving medical termination of my pregnancy was the worst day of his professional career, in your mind he's a callous murderer willing to kill children.

Or this:

Not only is John McCain saying we shouldn't have the right to terminate a pregnancy in the event that our lives are at stake, he's telling us he's skeptical that that happens at all.

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