"Monday Blogaround" from Shakespeare's Sister

Shakesville has lots of good blogs to read today:

This blogaround brought to you by Shaxco, makers of Spudsy's Delicious Scooter Snak-Paks, for the zipster on the go.

Recommended Reading:

UPDATE: Feminist Majority Foundation: "The Stupak amendment far from being abortion neutral is an unacceptable, giant step backward for women."

Melissa: The Stupak-Pitts Amendment Hall of Shame

Amanda: Misogyny Hijacks Health Care Reform Vote

The Red Queen: Second Class Health Care for Second Class Citizens

Atrios: The Worst Person in the World

Angry Asian Man: Health Care Bill's Lone Republican Supporter: Anh 'Joseph' Cao

Andy: Health Care Bill Provision Would Fix Unjust Tax Laws for Gays

Click the Link at the top to get the links to the blogs.

Is anybody paying attention?

Think the anti-abortion side won this weekend? Think women are going to accept this Stupak stupidity on behalf of their sisters and nieces and daughters and granddaughters?
Listen to what they're saying:

Angry Mouse in Daily Kos:

My autonomy is not about your religious beliefs. My autonomy is not about your "concerns." My autonomy is not about your arbitrary belief that rape victims are entitled to reproductive health care, but women who "use it as contraception" or "change their minds" or "forget to use birth control" are somehow not entitled to reproductive health care.

I refuse to argue the minutia anymore. I refuse to beg for the right to be a full and equal citizen. I refuse to be taken for granted by the Democratic party, who tells me I have no choice but to vote Democrat in elections, and then congratulates itself for its big tent when it comes time to vote on legislation.

Don't tell me how you feel about abortion. I don't care how you feel about abortion.

Tell me how you feel about my rights. Tell me whether you believe I am a full and equal citizen. Tell me whether you really believe the Democratic party stands for women.

It is time for every member of the Democratic party to answer one simple question:

Do you believe in equal rights for women?

Jane Hamscher, in Huffington Post:

Democrats in Congress have just proudly signed a deal with the Catholic bishops which allows a bunch of old men who have spent the better part of the last century avoiding their own sexual issues to dictate access to abortion services in the House health care bill.

No tax dollars were going to go to pay for abortions, mind you, but now insurance companies that participate in the exchange can't even cover them, thanks to Democrat Bart Stupak. FDL's Jon Walker explains how it works:

If the insurance companies offering plans on the exchange are not allowed to turn down any customers, it means no basic insurance plan on the exchange could cover abortion. There would be no way to prevent that at least one of the plan’s customer would be be using affordability tax credits to help purchase the plan. So the effect is no plan sold on the exchange could offer abortion coverage as part of its basic package.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/naral-and-planned-parenth_b_349596.html&cp

MY question is: Is this even constitutional? Can women's rights be dismissed so completely and with no problem to anyone other than women facing heartbreaking choices?

I think Obama really should have concentrated on doing something like FDR did--putting people to work on projects restoring the infrastructure. JOBS JOBS JOBS. Instead, we have this steaming pile of crap they are calling a "health care" bill. It has nothing to do with health and even less with care. All that will remain is the bill.

Dear Mr. President

It's getting annoying, the way you can't send a letter to an elected official these days unless you agree to contribute to something. So...Here's my letter to President Obama. I'd send it through the Planned Parenthood site, but they have not made it possible. YEt. Here's my letter:

Dear Mr. President:

You campaigned on a promise to put reproductive health care at the center of your health care reform plan. Now it's time for you to make good on that commitment.

I am one of many who are outraged that the House of Representatives passed a bill that would make women worse off under health care reform than they are today. I am asking you to ensure that lawmakers, especially those in your party, support health care reform that protects women's access to reproductive care as the next round of debate and voting occurs in the Senate.

President Obama, without access to abortion care, and to comprehensive reproductive health care, there is no choice. I will not stand for that, and I need to know that you won't either.

Also, Mr. President, we can read. Specifically, we have read Taylor Marsh's column in HP today, which reads, in part: "It was Pres. Obama who opened the door to sell us out when he decided to put the Hyde Amendment in the budget, something Bill Clinton never did. But Mr. Obama didn't stop there. During the stimulus fight, at the first sign of displeasure, our president personally asked that contraceptives be taken out. Now the president seems ready to finish the job, with Democrats in the House helping him do it."
(Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/in-pelosis-house-64-democ_b_349769.html&cp).

You are not going to WIN anything if you do it on the backs of women!!

Thank you,

Xtreme English

Another great blog!

It just hasn't stopped this week:  Welcome to Scotland for the Senses, whose post yesterday was on the "green monster," kale!  I adore kale, and S4S has a great recipe for BAKED kale--she says,

I’m telling you, it’s tastier than popcorn and about a thousand times better for you. If you like the deep-fried crispy seaweed you can get in Chinese restaurants, this is a perfect substitute. Best eaten straight away to get the best crunch factor, but you can pack it up for a lunchtime snack as well.

Welcome to 20th Century Woman!

Golly....The most wonderful bloggers keep stopping by and saying hello this week.  I'm pleased to welcome 20th Century Woman, who turns out to be an artist--currently studying painting but in her words, "I don’t think of myself as a painter.  I went to art school when I was 50, and I majored in printmaking." Art school!  Major!

She has links to other artists, too--like her community college painting teacher, Lorna Libert, whom 20th CW describes as "a free spirit, spontaneous, cheerful, friendly, intelligent and pretty."  All of that?! 

I've gone to many different art CLASSES--the University of Minnesota (metal sculpture), the Minneapolis College of Art & Design (painting), Art Students League in NYC (anatomical drawing), the University of Iowa (watercolor), Washington Studio School (figure sculpting), Gallaudet University (hand building ceramics),  the Torpedo Factory (watercolor again) but unlike 20th CW I've never signed up and picked a major.  What a great idea!

I'm feeling a great rush of inspiration here. Art has saved my bacon many times, and I'm going back to it.  Grandma Moses started painting when she was 74. Do you think she ever wondered what the hey to do with herself when her eyesight got too wobbly for her embroidering?

But enough about me. Welcome, Ms. 20th Century Woman!  You've come bearing great gifts!!

Introducing....Cosmic Navel Lint!

Sometimes I just get very lucky...as when I encountered Cosmic Navel Lint, a blog from the UK. CNL was so kind as to comment on a couple of my posts yesterday, so I looked it up, and found today's post, immediately preceded by THIS one. Sooooo funny, and so original, too.  Thanks CNL!!
 

i write letters.....

here's one I just composed...on "retired life":

retired life....well....lessee....it's sort of like being 9 or 10 but with nobody riding your ass all day--do this, don't do that, wash your hands, don't slam the back door (boy, there was one....my father used to go ballistic if i slammed the back door). i don't need much more money than i had then....so far, i've got a roof over my head, and food in the fridge, and three laptops. what more could a person want? haven't had a car since 1991 (for which, thanks be), but i do have a cool bike that i bought at a thrift shop last year and fixed up. it makes a lovely drying rack for my smalls, too.

Lest you misunderestimate what happened at the polls yesterday,

here's DIGBY, who always has something very sensible to say:

The fatuous gasbags have settled on the theme that the Democrats suffered a devastating setback to their agenda on Tuesday. This is despite the fact that as Clyburn pointed out, the only candidates who were actually running on the national agenda were those running for congress --- and the Democrats won. Nonetheless, the election has been decreed to be a precursor to a Democratic rout in 2010 and, more importantly, the reason for that will be because the Democrats have been far, far too liberal for the country. As usual.

In other words, Repuglicans, YOU LOST!!

Answer: Because altar boys don't get pregnant

Yesterday's mail brought a request from Planned Parenthood to help fight back against the Catholic bishops, who are throwing their weight around to encourage Catholic parishioners to agitate for more abortion restrictions in the health care bill.  This clearly is the episcopal issue of choice (oops) these days. No matter that what the law of the land is, or the opinion of compassionate people everywhere, they are totally against abortion (and worse yet, birth control) for women. 

Why, you ask?  See above.

More Engineer's Guide to Cats....

thankx to ronniecat for involuntarily sharing this....

Dear Diary....

November 2, 2009

Hard work today--successfully restrained myself from throwing my laptop through the window, and got the work done, too.

Plus, Squeak threw up blood!  He probably heard us talking about my niece, who rescued a stray dog from the street in Naples yesterday.  As she was driving around it, it raised its poor head and looked straight into her eyes.  Being a kind person, she stopped traffic, got out and wrapped the dog in her sweatshirt, and hauled him home.  There are no English-speaking vets in Naples, so she had to wait until this morning to take him into the vet on post.  Last night, though, she said he had a broken leg and was vomiting blood.  I imagine he is on the rainbow bridge, as my niece calls it, by now--if not on the other side already.  But maybe not. I remember Josh surviving a hit by a panel truck back in the 70s.  He managed to limp back to the shop and stand swaying in the back, where the overhead doors were wide open to the outside and fresh air. He had blood running from his nose and mouth. Mary, who was working in the back, said "There's something the matter with that dog!" Off to the vet with him, and the prognosis was grim.  But HE survived.

Meanwhile, Squeak is at the vet here now, and the vet is going to do some blood work. What? No xrays?  No MRIs? Probably a good case of parasites. Squeak loves to supplement his diet with whatever he can find on the sidewalk or in the tall grass. He's been vomiting regularly since last Friday, when they installed all new carpet!  I yelled at him today for barfing on the carpet again, and woddya know, he directed his next four throwups to the kitchen tile!

So it's dog vomit day in Naples and DC.

I am not a dog lover like some.  And it always amazes some dog lovers that their dogs come to sit by me or lie at my feet when I visit. I disapprove of the dogs lollygagging on the furniture and eating food off the kitchen counter. I disapprove of the dogs' lack of obedience and good doggy manners. But ha.  The dogs still like me--more, it seems, than they like others who are more tolerant.

It's the day George Bernard Shaw died, at the age of 94. I was in the 8th grade at St. Mary's in Fargo that day, and I had never heard of George Bernard Shaw. I always thought he was English, but ha!  he was IRISH.